Immigrant Study Cites Fiscal Gain

Rather than being a drain on the economy, immigrants in California contribute $12 billion more each year in taxes and other payments than than they cost in schooling, health care and other services, a new analysis has found.

“Immigration is on balance a plus,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, director of immigration research at the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, who unveiled his findings Tuesday in Los Angeles.

His analysis is the latest broadside in the war of dueling studies--often with diametrically opposite conclusions--that has punctuated the emotionally charged immigration debate.

Principally, Passel attacked the methodology of Donald L. Huddle, a Rice University economist whose work has often been cited in California and nationwide as evidence that immigrants deflate federal, state and local economies.

Last year, widely disseminated Huddle studies reported that immigrants take tens of thousands of jobs from U.S. workers and cost California taxpayers more than $18 billion annually. However, Passel disputed evidence of job displacement and concluded that immigrants provide a net benefit of $12 billon to the state, once government costs were subtracted from taxes and other payments.

On a national level, Passel contended that immigrants contributed $28.7 billion more in taxes than they used in services--compared to Huddle’s findings that immigrants cost the nation a net $42.5 billion annually.

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Among other things, Passel charged that Huddle underestimated immigrant tax payments, exaggerated the size of foreign-born populations, both documented and undocumented, and overstated school enrollments (education is a major cost for immigrants).

“His (Huddle’s) numbers don’t make sense.” said Passel, whose counter-study (costing $10,000) was financed by the Tomas Rivera Center, a Claremont-based Latino policy study institute.

Like Huddle’s analysis, Passel’s report did not specifically focus on illegal immigrants--the lightning rod in the debate--but looked at all foreign settlers who entered the country since 1970. Passel calls about one-fifth of that population undocumented; Huddle says more than a third are illegal immigrants.

Reached at his Houston home Tuesday, Huddle defended his conclusions. “They’re grasping at straws,” Huddle said of his critics.

Supporters of Huddle say immigrant advocates have targeted the Houston professor’s research to blunt discussion of the issue.

“They’re trying to justify a large-scale immigration program,” said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks restrictions on entries.

Like other experts, Passel finds that a disproportionate amount of immigrant tax funds accrue to Washington rather than to state and local governments. Huddle maintains that all levels of government lose out.

Among other alleged flaws, Passel stated that Huddle’s reports:

* Factor in a population of 4.8 million undocumented immigrants--50% more than the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s estimate of 3.2 million.

* Ignore Social Security payments and other tax revenues generated by immigrants, while excluding benefits arising from newcomers’ spending.

* Inflate immigrant participation in a range of benefit programs, including welfare, food stamps, job training and health services.