PDF: Congressional Budget Office

WASHINGTON — Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers supporting a bill aimed at tougher illegal immigration enforcement disputed a congressional agency’s estimate that it will increase federal spending by $23.4 billion over 10 years.

The report does not factor in the cost of doing nothing, they say.

“Frankly, the people I represent want us to enforce the law, understanding there’s a cost with this,” said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. “The fact that we haven’t has caught up with us.”

The bipartisan Save America through Verification and Enforcement Act, introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., would add 8,000 border patrol agents and increase deportations by hiring more immigration judges. It also would revamp a federally administered electronic legal verification program for employers.

The Congressional Budget Office, charged by Congress with evaluating the potential economic impact of legislation, said in a letter to lawmakers that the bill would mean billions to hire the additional personnel, increase the capacity of detention centers and verify the proper use of Social Security numbers.

The agency also said the bill would decrease federal revenues by $17.3 billion through 2018 because requiring employers to use the legal verification program would cause a rise in the number of undocumented workers being paid under the table to avoid taxes.

Rep. Shuler and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., responded in a letter to their colleagues that the estimate, seized on by opponents to the bill, is misleading and that illegal immigration is costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

The congressmen said the estimate ignores “education, medical, and incarceration costs for illegal aliens that our government absorbs every day.”

“If members of either party think misrepresenting a cost estimate on the SAVE Act with baseless claims is going to deter efforts to secure America's borders and enforce existing laws, they are mistaken,” the congressmen wrote.

Opponents of the legislation said the measure provides no safeguards against erroneous information in the verification database and will hurt the economy by deporting millions of workers.

America Gruner, president of the Coalition of Latino Leaders, said the costs of the act likely are higher than any potential benefit gained.

“We need a real solution, such as (comprehensive) immigration reform,” she said. “This (the SAVE Act) would only incite fear among the community and push them towards a life in the shadows.”

In addition to Rep. Wamp, the bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn.; Nathan Deal, R-Ga.; and John Duncan, R-Tenn. A Senate version is co-sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

“I believe these costs are worth the effort to address the No. 1 domestic problem in this nation,” Sen. Isakson said.

Carl “Two Feathers” Whitaker, director of the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group, acknowledged the bill’s high cost but said its focus on border enforcement is needed.

“I think the price tag is kind of high, but overall it will help in the long run,” he said in an e-mail. “We need to act now or pay the price later.”

Staff writer Perla Treviso contributed to this story.

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