has been increasing by
about 300,000 every year, according to FAIR, one immigration policy group. According to some claims, illegal aliens displace up to 659,000 American workers every year at an annual cost of $3.5 billion.
About half of the illegal alien population is comprised simply of visa overstayers -- people who enter the country legally, but become illegal aliens by failing to leave the United States upon expiration of their visas.
Paradoxically, increased Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) pressure in heavily trafficked border areas and tightened enforcement at ports of entry in recent years has helped to attract smugglers. Many aliens who might have illegally entered the United States on their own a few years ago, now look for help crossing the border.
And as the demand for smugglers has gone up, so have the prices. Along the Southwest border, fees charged by smugglers have doubled, and in some cases have increased from $250 to $900. Prices charged by long-distance international smugglers are dramatically higher. For aliens traveling from China to New York, smuggling fees range as high as $35,000 per person. According to the INS, alien smuggling today is big business, grossing as much as $5 billion a year.
EXPLOITATION
Increased smuggling revenues means the potential for exploitation and abuse also rises. Chinese smuggled into this country, for instance, have been sold into slavery, forced to deal drugs or commit other crimes, and have even been murdered by the criminal organizations who control the smuggling operations.
Moreover, alien smuggling rings now frequently connect with international criminal syndicates engaged in other illegal activities, including illicit drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and financial fraud. Strong connections exist between transnational organized crime networks and the migrant trafficking industry in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
COSTS
The burden that illegal immigration places on state and local government extends far beyond the displacement of American workers. Children of illegal immigrants attend public schools, eating up scarce educational resources. In the past, because of legal loopholes, many illegal aliens have been allowed to receive welfare without fear of deportation. Others obtain welfare and employment through document fraud. In many cities, false documents can be bought on the street for as little as $40.
Local, state and federal prison numbers have swelled with convicted alien criminals. In 1980, for example, federal and state prisons housed fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens. By the end of 1994, these same prisons housed over 59,000 criminal aliens.
If one also adds to prison rosters the number of aliens on probation or parole in the federal, state and local corrections systems, the number soars to 450,000 (based on 1993 figures). Over the past five years, an average of more than 72,000 aliens have been arrested annually on drug charges. It is therefore not surprising that the New York State Senate Committee on Cities estimated that the annual criminal justice costs for criminal aliens in New York alone is $270 million.
According to the Illinois Governor's Office, Illinois spends over $40 million per year for the incarceration of criminal aliens, and this does not include the costs of arrest and prosecution. And in California, taxpayers reportedly have spent over a billion dollars in the last five years to keep convicted alien felons incarcerated.
The question of whether illegal immigrants contribute taxes which offset costs is in dispute, since data is sketchy on their numbers, employment, and benefits.
Even studies which focus primarily on legal immigration have reached widely varying conclusions. Three principle reports, for example, have sought to calculate the amount of tax revenues immigrants generate and weigh this against the cost burden they impose on taxpayers, especially at the state and local level.
The Costs of Immigration, by Dr. Donald Huddle, estimated that post-1969 immigrants create a net deficit of $44.2 billion annually. Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the Record Straight, by Michael Fix and Jeffery Passel of the Urban Institute, argued that post-1969 immigrants created a net benefit of $28.7 billion annually. The Costs of Immigration: Assessing a Conflicted Issue, by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) noted flaws in both the Urban Institute study and the Huddle study, concluding that post-1969 immigrants create a net deficit of $29.1 billion annually.
Last year, all of these previous reports were called into question by a RAND study which argued that "in spite of their proliferation, recent studies on the net fiscal costs of immigration do not provide a reliable estimate of what those net costs are."
DATASHARE
Nearly four years ago, a plan was launched to reverse what Attorney General Janet Reno called "years of neglect of the Immigration and Naturalization Service" by developing an infrastructure and "comprehensive strategy to control illegal immigration." Apart from increasing manpower in critical areas, automation and technology were clearly seen as the answer to working smarter, handling increased workloads and delivering better, faster service.
For example, the Department of State (DOS) and INS have developed an electronic data sharing system, called DataShare, whereby the two agencies can exchange data and track an applicant's visa and petition for legal residence or entry at every step of the process. The DataShare system transfers application data so it need not be re-keyed at each phase of the process. The application information moves electronically with the case as it is being processed.
"The immigrant visa process has been overloaded with unnecessary data entry, time-consuming mailings and too many confusing steps," explained INS Deputy Commissioner Chris Sale. The DataShare system not only eliminates redundant steps but also enhances enforcement by giving INS and DOS instantaneous access to application information that before was not readily available. Under the new system, immigration inspectors at ports of entry can verify if a visa was issued or check other case information, allowing the inspector to make a better-informed decision before allowing a person to enter the country.
Recently, INS and DOS began piloting the new DataShare system at three overseas posts to demonstrate the feasibility of electronic data transfer between the Department of State's overseas posts and INS offices throughout the United States. The three posts -- Cuidad Juarez, Mexico; Frankfurt, Germany; and Georgetown, Guyana -- have already issued over 78,000 immigrant visas with the DataShare process.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
In efforts to combat counterfeit documents, INS has been developing new tamper-resistant documents that incorporate the latest technologies, including a digitized photograph and fingerprint, holographic imagery and other security features. The first of these to be deployed is a new, "hard" Employment Authorization Document (EAD) issued mostly to nonresident aliens who obtain temporary work. Such documentation significantly increases the difficulty for counterfeiters.
Border Patrol agents, especially in areas known for smuggling activity, are beginning to be outfitted with modern equipment such as encrypted radios, night scopes, more helicopters and other vehicles. And all along the border, agents are being armed with the IDENT automated fingerprint system to access records based solely on fingerprints.
But stronger border control alone is not sufficient to curtail the rising tide of illegal immigrants and the tremendous financial burden these place on all levels of government. Even crackdowns on smuggling operations, and the removal of criminal and other deportable aliens from the United States at a record pace, cannot keep up with the flow of illegal aliens.
Employment is the magnet which draws the vast majority of illegal aliens to the United States and, ultimately, effective immigration control requires the ability to effectively deny illegal aliens both employment and benefits. It is here that new technology may be providing the best long-range solution to America's immigration problems.
FEDERAL/STATE COOPERATION
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program is an intergovernmental information-sharing service for agencies and institutions to determine a noncitizen's immigration status, and thereby ensure that only entitled noncitizens receive federally subsidized benefits. Nationally accessible, this database contains selected immigration status information on approximately 50 million individual noncitizens.
There are presently 128 SAVE users located at more than 32,000 sites throughout the United States. A number of federal programs are mandated by law to participate in the program:
Food Stamp Program (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, and Territorial Assistance Program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
Unemployment Compensation (U.S. Department of Labor).
Educational Assistance (U.S. Department of Education).
Housing Assistance (U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development).
However, in addition to these, any federal or state entitlement issuing authority or licensing bureau that requires verification of alien immigration status may apply for participation in the SAVE Program.
Currently, nonmandated agencies participating in SAVE include the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System Program, Social Security Administration, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Defense Manpower Data Center, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
There are about 4 million SAVE database accesses per year with about 10 percent of these coming from the California DMV. The recently passed new immigration legislation may put that figure even higher. "But at this point, we are simply not sure what the effects of the new legislation will be," explained SAVE Program Director John Nahan. "We can't really talk too much about the future in relation to the impact of this new legislation. This has as much to do with the uncertainty that is still surrounding us policy-wise as well as anything. The administration is looking very carefully about how it wants to proceed."
Speculation about the future aside, the fact remains that, to date, more than 149,000 aliens have been identified as ineligible for benefits through the SAVE program, avoiding millions of dollars in taxpayer costs.
State agencies can apply for access to the SAVE database using a variety of methods: voice inquiries, online access and tape match runs. "Phone is the most expensive, 79 cents an inquiry," said Nahan. "Whereas if you get down to a large tape match, you are talking about 15 cents or less. But the means of access really depends on the particular needs of an agency."
State agencies wishing to pursue SAVE access possibilities should simply send Nahan a letter. "It is nothing more complicated than that," he said. "Give us an idea of what mandate or policy decision lies behind the request and we would pursue it further. Since California, we've been pretty open on a case-by-case basis to considering other possibilities."
EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION PILOT
The success of the SAVE program has resulted in a new pilot to adapt the database for direct access by employers -- the Employment Verification Pilot (EVP). This allows participating employers, through an automated process, to query information contained in the INS database. The system is quick, accurate and easy to use for employers, while it safeguards the privacy and rights of noncitizens and protects against the potential for discrimination.
Using this new system, an employer reviews a noncitizen employee's documents then initiates the automated primary verification query using a personal computer. The electronic verification procedure consists of three possible steps. Employers proceed through as many of the three steps as is necessary to verify the newly hired non-citizen employee's work eligibility.
In Primary Verification, the employer enters an access code, password and selected information about the new employee. This information is then checked against information in the INS database. Within seconds, the employer receives one of two responses from the INS -- "Employment Authorized" or "Institute Secondary Verification."
Secondary Verification asks for additional information, input via the personal computer, which would be needed to search other data sources. Response time here is about three days and during this time, the employee remains on the job.
The third step for employees whose status remains "unable to verify" after completion of primary and secondary checks provides a third and final opportunity for confirmation of employment eligibility. In these cases, employees are given 30 days to resolve their immigration status by contacting INS. During this time they will continue to be employed.
Nahan emphasized that this is a passive system that remains unconnected with any other law enforcement system. "We've been very careful to ensure that the database is not used for law enforcement purposes," said Nahan. "For instance, if an employer makes an inquiry about someone who should not be employed, we then don't go after that person. We just don't operate that way."
Initially the pilot was launched in the Los Angeles area and was limited to about 250 employers. But its success and the employer response was so positive that within a few months the pilot was expanded to 1,000 sites across the country. There are now about 950 participating sites and Nahan said that companies can still approach him to participate.
"If they are really interested, if they really do have a problem, then they are real pioneers," he said. "And they are really helping the country because ultimately Congress is going to have to decide if this or some adaptation of it is really a good idea as a permanent operation."
To explain the pilot, INS has put together extensive public affairs materials and even a film that explains the system and its history as well as giving details of the equipment employers would need to access the system. "In the beginning we provided hands-on training for the folks in L.A. and a few others, but knowing that we were going to be going to much larger numbers around the country, we decided to use a kind of remote training," said Nahan. "Now once we sign them up, we simply send them what I call the 'orange box' with all the materials and they can basically hook in using the free software we provide. We even have an 800 number for any technical problems. And if any thorny policy issues come up, they can call us directly."
Whether EVP will expand beyond this pilot still remains to be seen. "But I do feel some of the improvements to this database, especially its overall responsiveness and what we've learned from the employer verification pilots about creating much more user-friendly service, puts us in a much better position to proceed no matter what course the administration chooses for the future."
And perhaps even more important than this, it is a technological solution that directly addresses a fundamental reality: America's illegal immigration problems will not be solved through INS smuggling crackdowns, deportations and border enforcement alone. "These are laws which can only be fully enforced with the active participation of the country as a whole," said Nahan. "Essentially, a key part of any workable strategy is simply denying employment and benefits to those not entitled, thereby removing the main incentive to illegally enter or remain in the country."
*
