Jennifer Torres' Diversity Blog

I received several reader responses critical of those recent stories on Brayan Soto and his family. All of them, in some way, alluded to the costs of illegal immigration:

“Will you ever write an article about how much these illegal’s cost this country; how they are criminals, yes true criminals, and a major drain on the tax dollars of this state.” – Paul Pasquini

“I am outraged by your article, ‘Lost in the shadows’. You have the nerve to actually explain how he ILLEGALLY entered the U.S. and expect your readers to feel sorry for his family. Let’s see, they don’t pay taxes, he’s getting a free education and his mother is getting FREE medical treatment courtesy of the California taxpayers. You insult the legal citizens of this city who have to read such garbage!!” – Alexis Ruhl

“As far as I am concerned the writers duty as a citizen of the United States of America should contact the nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office and turn this family in for being in this County ILLEGALLY and a drain on our limited resources (my tax dollars). – John Bales

As I wrote to all of these folks, the question of the cost of illegal immigration is a tricky one. Many studies have been done on the issue, many of them by credible, nonpartisan sources, and they have reached different conclusions on the matter.

As Elaine Ayala, of the San Antonio Express-News, wrote in an April story:

“The question of costs vs. benefits, though contentious and unclear, brings disparate groups to agree on this: No one knows for sure how much unauthorized immigrants cost any state because hard data isn’t collected.”

Two new studies released this month by California universities address the topic.

Yesterday, USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration released a report concluding that “Latino immigrant legalization” would eventually yield California $16 billion, money that, in turn, could help resolve the state’s budget woes. Researchers determined that their immigration status cost California’s 1.8 million undocumented immigrant adults about $2.2 billion in salary and wages last year compared to authorized immigrants with similar education levels and English ability. If they were legalized, the report suggests, the state would see more income and sales taxes collected – especially as education levels, and then earnings, begin to rise.

“While some say we need to focus on recovering from the recession and not deal with immigration reform, legalizing our unauthorized immigrants could actually be an unexpected source of economic stimulus,” co-author Manuel Pastor said in a statement.

Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, of UCLA, released a report last week that reached similar conclusions.

Groups opposed to legalization have criticized such reports, arguing in part that they don’t take into account the costs of social services newly documented immigrants would become eligible for.

Tricky.