A new harmful and costly immigration proposal – Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) – would create an impractical mandate for most public agencies in Kentucky to participate in federal immigration law enforcement in order to maximize arrests and deportations of immigrants. Aggressive enforcement would create many costs for already cash-strapped public agencies as well as detrimental social, health and economic consequences for Kentucky children, families and communities.
Immigration enforcement would be costly for public agencies and detrimental to services they provide
SB 1 requires all public agencies and organizations whose budgets are comprised of at least 25% state or local public funds to enforce federal immigration law (with the exception of school districts, district boards of education and public charter schools). Such agencies, which are already legally required to adhere to federal immigration law but not to enforce it, could now be subjected to legal action and incur significant costs to budgets already strained by cuts at the state and local level over the last decade.
Though the language of the bill allows the consideration of “available resources,” it also gives constitutional officials such as the attorney general the authority to sue an agency or employee they believe is not putting forth their “best effort” – an unclear measure that would be up to interpretation. Public agencies as set forth in the proposal include a very broad array of organizations, boards and commissions, public departments, authorities, courts, and more at the state and local level, meaning this mandate applies to universities, community-based health care providers, and even child protective services, libraries, community centers, domestic violence shelters, parks and more.
Local law enforcement would be mandated to spend time and resources on federal immigration enforcement, which is currently the responsibility of the federal government with most support from local enforcement on a voluntary basis. Most local expenses for immigration enforcement are not reimbursed by the federal government. For example, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates that local governments in the state only recovered about 12% of the costs of voluntary immigration enforcement over a 9-year span. In addition to the significant costs of implementation, the policy would put law enforcement at substantial risk of costly litigation for misinterpreting complex immigration law, as the experience of other states has shown. And the policy would likely lead to an increased risk of racial profiling in Kentucky communities.
There are also long-term costs to local governments related to the considerable social and economic harms caused by reduced trust. Under aggressive enforcement, Kentuckians with and without documentation, their family and community members may be less likely to interact with public agencies. Many of these agencies provide education, health or social services to the public and rely on communities’ trust to efficiently conduct business.
For instance, a report by the Migration Policy Institute indicates that overly enforced communities are less likely to report crimes or provide useful information to law enforcement out of a justified fear of deportation. The report also shows that similar immigration enforcement policies in other states exacerbate the barriers people without documentation experience to accessing public health services, health and food assistance. For example, a community organization in Atlanta reported a 15% decrease in food assistance applications and a nonprofit health agency in Houston reported seeing 50% fewer patients without documentation during the implementation of a similar policy. The risks are not just for immigrants but entire communities, such as when children go unvaccinated and fewer people are screened for communicable diseases.
Policy could exacerbate jail overcrowding and put further strain on county budgets
As immigrant Kentuckians are arrested – even for minor infractions – local law enforcement would essentially be mandated to contact federal immigration enforcement (ICE), and then to detain individuals. Data from other states shows that these kinds of practices can result in costly errors and people being detained for longer than would otherwise be the case including because of lag time in follow up from ICE. Recent studies show people detained on immigration charges remain in jail longer than other individuals, ranging from 20 to almost 30 days longer in comparable states. They can be arrested for minor offenses, like traffic violations, and detained regardless of if they have posted bail or had their charges dropped, driving up local detention costs. For example, Colorado spends $13 million per year on detention due to a similar policy adopted in 2006.
The aggressive detainment practice resulting from SB 1 would further pack Kentucky’s overcrowded jails. That problem is already putting significant pressure on strained county budgets that bear the costs of operating jails and incarcerating individuals prior to sentencing as well as those convicted of misdemeanors. Recent reporting by the Lexington Herald-Leader indicated Kentucky’s jails were at an average of 121% of their capacity in the spring of 2019 — and 3 dozen jails were filled beyond 138% capacity, the limit recommended by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2011 jail overcrowding decision. The resulting conditions of confinement are often unsafe for both those who are incarcerated as well as for jail staff.
Costs would add up for communities, families and individuals
Immigrants and their families – navigating a complex road to citizenship – face many barriers to participation in social services even as they pay state and local taxes that support those services at a relatively high effective rate. An estimated 26,750 Kentucky children live at home with at least one undocumented family member or caregiver who would be less likely to engage with systems that support the well-being of their households because of SB 1. SB 1 would promote increased fear of deportation, leading to consequences for children and other family members’ health, education and economic stability. And because of the chilling effect – where fear of deportation causes not just Kentuckians who are undocumented to forego services but also Kentuckians with relatives who are undocumented – many more than the bill directly targets would be harmed.
Furthermore, detainment and deportation create trauma for families. The consequences for children who lose a parent or breadwinner are well-documented. Putting Kentuckians at greater risk for deportation means more families will be both temporarily and permanently separated. According to the Courier-Journal, even more Kentucky children will be added to the 10,000 kids in our foster care system – a system that would now be required to enforce the same immigration laws that separates families. A recent study shows that parental detention or deportation is a traumatic family event and increases the likelihood of poor mental health outcomes in children, including anxiety and depression, and decreases academic achievement. For the 26,750 Kentucky children mentioned previously, aggressive detention and deportation practices would also increase the need for resources in Kentucky schools to provide mental health services and academic supports.
Aggressive immigration enforcement can also send out ripple effects that prove harmful to our workforce and economy, such as fewer available skilled workers and depressed household spending power and tax contributions. An analysis from the Center for American Progress estimates that if all Kentuckians without documents were deported from the state, our economy would lose $1.5 billion in GDP. Regardless of citizenship status, immigrants also contribute to their communities as caregivers, mentors, and in other ways that don’t show up in official statistics but provide concrete benefits to all Kentuckians. Immigrants make significant contributions to Kentucky’s communities and economy and our policies should reflect that.
