INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana Senate Committee charged with studying the impact of illegal immigration heard Wednesday just how confusing and difficult the current immigration system in America is.
And there might not be much Indiana lawmakers can do to fix the problem, even if they wanted to tackle the astronomical cost of doing so.
Immigration Attorney Angela Adams testified before the committee about just how big an impact deporting illegals from Indiana would bring. She said the state would lose $2.8 billion in economic activity if all undocumented workers were removed. In addition, she said illegal immigrants pay between $89 and $109 million a year in taxes.
Members of the U.S. and Indiana Chambers of Commerce also testified before the committee, which focused on the current problems businesses face when it comes to immigration and what can be done. Because the federal government ultimately decides immigration policy, Jon Baselice, with the U.S. Chamber, warned that Indiana's ability to do anything about illegal immigration might be limited.
"Our current immigration system is outdated. It's a sub-optimal system that has contributed to the large number of undocumented immigrants," Baselice said. "But real change needs to come from Washington D.C." Baselice said perhaps the most important thing Indiana lawmakers could do would be to keep pressure on their Washington counterparts to make changes.
The main complaint from the business community is that the database for checking potential employees' immigration status is time-consuming, disorganized and easily beaten. Baselice spoke at length about making the E-verify system - a database some businesses use voluntarily - mandatory. He said in order for that to work, the system would have to be run at the national level.
Ideally, a well-run national database would prevent illegal immigrants from being able to obtain jobs, thus cutting down on their desire to come to the U.S. in the first place, he said.
But that doesn't do anything about the millions of undocumented workers currently in the U.S. - the population of which is similar to Ohio, Baselice said.
"Mass deportation and self-deportation are not viable options," Baselice said. "We could be looking at a loss of $1.6 trillion nationwide." Wednesday's meeting was the third for the committee led by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel. The committee is tasked with discovering if legislative action could and should be taken on illegal immigration.