The immigration juggling act

The issues surrounding illegal immigration are difficult to comprehend, let alone solve. Republicans are coming to grips with this in New York as they grapple with a platform that tries to juggle three competing forces: businesses hungry for cheap labor; people worried about the cost of providing services to illegals; and President Bush, who has proposed a guest-worker plan that would extend temporary legal status to undocumented workers.

In the middle of all this, a think-tank opposed to extending legal status to undocumented workers released a study this week that purports to show, in raw numbers, how illegal immigrants cost taxpayers more than they provide. Meanwhile, some in Congress are proposing a bill that would keep illegal immigrants from ever collecting on the billions of dollars in combined contributions they are making to Social Security.

The debates could go on forever. And yet, one overriding reality cannot be ignored — illegals are here, and they aren't likely to disappear into thin air anytime soon. The estimated total of illegal workers in this country ranges from 8 million to 12 million. Many of their children will grow up here as American citizens, and their bloodlines eventually will be assimilated into the American fabric, just as those of any other legal immigrant.

Any realistic public policy has to recognize that reality and plan accordingly. That means measures like Sen. Orrin Hatch's DREAM Act, which would provide education for the children of current illegals who have resided here a certain length of time, need to be passed. It also means the debate over costs and benefits needs to be cast in a different light.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, which released this week's report, the average illegal immigrant household paid $4,212 in federal taxes in 2002 but cost $6,949 in federal services. These costs include schooling, medical care and welfare benefits, and those costs would increase if the workers were granted legal status.

But that is only part of the equation. For example, their children, if allowed an education, eventually would become net assets to the nation. And in a more immediate and practical sense, their Social Security contributions help keep that program afloat.

We sympathize with those who would keep illegals from tapping into Social Security, although nearly all of them contribute under false names and it would be extremely difficult for them to collect under current rules anyway. But Republicans, and the nation as a whole, have to adopt a more realistic view of the problem, even as they work to get a better handle on the security of the nation's borders.

The only thing that is clear in all this mess is that illegal immigrants do contribute to the economy and to tax rolls — and that they also are a drain on both. The exact balance of the ledger remains cloudy, at best. But it also may safely be said that illegal workers are sharing the same hopes and dreams that brought most other people to these shores, and that a fair share of the economy depends on their willingness to work cheaply. That ought to temper any urges to punish them unfairly.