All of Kentucky will suffer if Senate’s top priority immigration bill is enacted
A decade ago, when Arizona’s legislature kicked off a new era of anti-immigration legislation by passing what became known as the “Show me your papers” law, the reaction was both swift and substantial. Protests, national boycotts and legal fees cost that state millions of dollars, while court rulings whittled away much of the law itself.
That hard-earned lesson should have been enough to deter other states from traveling down the same wayward path, but many have followed it anyway, despite mounting evidence showing how costly and ineffective this approach is. Regrettably, Kentucky could soon be joining them, if state Senate leaders are successful during this year’s legislative session.
As initially proposed, their Senate Bill 1 would have suddenly required tens of thousands of public employees to actively enforce federal immigration law. This would have covered everyone working for state and local governments; public colleges and universities; and such quasi-governmental agencies as health departments, libraries, domestic violence shelters and mental-health providers.
Facing pressure, the bill’s primary sponsor recently said he intends to scale back which government workers will be affected, but the core problem remains, no matter how many agencies he exempts.
As a state representative, and as an attorney who has specialized in immigration law for the last 10 years, I have serious concerns about the widespread fall-out should Senate Bill 1 become law. There are still too many unanswered questions and unintended consequences looming large in that legislation’s current five pages.
To start, it provides no new funding to train any public employee about how to identify and then detain anyone they think may be here in our country illegally. The only specific documentation listed is a driver’s license, which has no bearing on immigration status and is not held by every Kentuckian eligible for one.
Just as there is no money for training, there is not any to pay added law enforcement and correctional costs and the legal expenses that will invariably arise when a citizen is unlawfully detained. There’s not a cent, either, for the additional social-service programs like foster care that will be needed for children when parents suspected of being here illegally find themselves in jails that are already filled past capacity.
The bill attempts to avoid these financial hurdles by calling on affected public agencies to conduct this work within their “available resources,” and to give their “best effort.” At the same time, the bill also gives state officials the ability to force agencies to cooperate under these vague terms.
Our local governments, already suffering from repeated budget cuts due to the Great Recession and spikes in their public retirement contributions, would bear the brunt of this unfunded mandate. According to a Georgia study cited by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, local communities in that state were responsible for nearly 90 percent of the cost for their voluntary immigration efforts over a nine-year period.
Beyond these direct expenses, the Senate legislation would have other, far-reaching impacts. Law enforcement, for example, would have a harder time investigating crimes because immigrants would be less likely to cooperate in criminal investigations, out of fear of being detained and ultimately deported.
Economically, Senate Bill 1 could devastate our agricultural and construction industries and our manufacturers, too. After Alabama passed its anti-immigration law in 2011, one study estimated that it lost a fourth of its commercial building force. A similar exodus set Georgia’s farmers back $140 million that year as unpicked crops rotted in the fields.
Senate Bill 1 could have a chilling impact on Kentucky’s foreign investment, too, something to consider in a state that ships more than $30 billion worth of products each year to other countries and which has nearly 110,000 workers in factories owned by such international companies as Toyota. Many businesses we need to create jobs will be pressured to reduce their presence here or to stay away altogether.
Senate supporters may believe this bill does little other than codify current practices, and that any financial impact would be limited, but as other states have shown all too clearly, laws like this aren’t carried out in a vacuum.
Our country decided long ago that immigration enforcement should primarily be handled at the federal level. Adding thousands of local and state public employees with no training will not be a help; on the contrary, it will push our immigration system to the brink while stoking a culture of fear in a state that prides itself on being welcome and caring.
The guiding rule for doctors is “first, do no harm.” I think that standard should apply to legislation, too. If that were the case, Senate Bill 1 wouldn’t have been filed, much less become that legislative chamber’s top priority, because there’s not a corner in the commonwealth that wouldn’t suffer if it is enacted.
Rep. Nima Kulkarni, who serves the 40th House District in Jefferson County, is also an attorney who specializes in immigration law.