A new study tries to nail down an answer
By Byron York
When George W. Bush visited the U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma Station Headquarters in Arizona Monday — for the second time in a year — his message on illegal immigration sounded a bit tougher than in the past. “Illegal immigration is a serious problem — you know it better than anybody,” he told a group of border agents. “It puts pressure on the public schools and the hospitals, not only here in our border states, but states around the country. It drains the state and local budgets…Incarceration of criminals who are here illegally strains the Arizona budget. But there’s a lot of other ways it strains the local and state budgets. It brings crime to our communities.”
The president touted his get-tough-on-the-border policies, enacted under pressure from the then-Republican Congress, and singled out Operation Jump Start, under which National Guard troops assist border agents. But he also stressed the need for “comprehensive” reform, and when he did his message sounded like the George W. Bush of old. “Past efforts at reform failed to address the underlying economic reasons behind illegal immigration,” the president said. “People are coming here to put food on the table, and they’re doing jobs Americans are not doing.”With those words, the president was revisiting the great question in the debate over illegal immigration: Is the presence of illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, a boon to the U.S. economy, or a drag? It’s a question that has long divided Bush supporters; the Wall Street Journal editorial page tells us that a lenient immigration policy is absolutely vital for American prosperity, while enforcement-first advocates tell us a strict policy is the only thing that will ensure continued economic health.
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