Are illegal immigrants a burden or a benefit to Kansas taxpayers?

The Legislative Division of Post Audit will try to answer that question in time for the next session of the Kansas Legislature, when illegal immigration is sure to be a topic for lawmakers frustrated at the failure of an illegal immigration bill during the 2008 session.

Rep. Nile Dillmore, a Wichita Democrat, inserted the study request in the state budget bill because he said he wants next year’s debate to be guided by the most recent and accurate information.

The audit, which will take 15 to 20 weeks to perform, will estimate the cost of benefits provided to illegal immigrants and the amount of tax revenue they provide. It also will examine the impact of illegal immigration on labor costs and the job market in Kansas.

In a document outlining the study’s purpose, auditors said that rooting out the exact costs of illegal immigration will be difficult. 

“Because of the hidden nature of the illegal immigrant population, it is extremely difficult to come up with reliable estimates of costs or revenues. Therefore, we expect that the estimates produced by this audit will be shown in fairly wide ranges,” auditors warned.

Although this will be the first official attempt by the state of Kansas to get a handle on the costs of illegal immigration, a non-profit public-interest group that advocates for immigration reform has developed some estimates on the burden illegal immigrants place on Kansas taxpayers, now and in the future.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization advocating a moratorium on immigration, estimated the state’s illegal immigrant population in 2007 at 90,000, adding that the cost of providing education, emergency medical care and incarceration for those illegal aliens was about $235 million. 

FAIR added that if illegal immigrants are allowed to stay in the state, and others also settle here at the same pace as today, the costs of providing education, emergency medical care and incarceration would grow to $396 million in 2010, and to $685 million in 2020.

Kansas had the highest costs associated with illegal immigration than any of its neighbor states except Colorado. FAIR estimates that Iowa spends $121 million, Missouri spends $116 million and Nebraska spends $126 million. In Colorado, the cost was estimated at $711 million. 

FAIR notes that though state taxpayers initially bear the burden for providing those services to illegal immigrants, programs are in place to allow states to recover funds from the federal government to compensate for some expenses.

For example, in fiscal year 2004, Kansas recovered $757,840 to partially offset the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants. In the same fiscal year, Kansas also recovered just over $1.1 million to help defray the costs of providing emergency medical care.

FAIR’s review of costs in Kansas does not consider any contributions that might be made by the illegal immigrant community in terms of tax revenue to the state, as will the pending Legislative Post audit report.

No estimates are available from the Kansas Department of Revenue regarding taxes paid by illegal immigrants. “To answer this question, we would review other studies that have been done to estimate the amount of tax revenue generated by illegal immigrants to see what they show and to determine what methodologies have been used to make the estimates," according to the Post Audit summary document.

The audit will also use Department of Revenue information to "make estimates that are more Kansas specific,"  as well as tax revenue estimates which would be compared to the estimated costs associated with illegal immigration "to determine to what extent costs are being offset."

The study will not examine the impact to the Kansas economy of remittances that illegal immigrants make to their home countries, however. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, legal and illegal immigrants in Kansas will send $152 million of the income they make in Kansas back to their home countries. Immigrants nationwide will send an estimated $45.9 billion home this year.

In neighboring Oklahoma, a "Citizen Protection Act" overwhelmingly supported by lawmakers of both parties caused an exodus of illegal immigrants from that state. The state's unemployment rate has fallen to 3.1 percent, even as the national unemployment rate has risen to 5.5 percent.

However, a study commissioned by the state's bankers claimed the loss of illegal immigrants could cost the state $1.8 billion in the long run. That figure is based on projected reductions in the gross state product over time.