Publisher’s Notes: The Maverick Observer is aware of the change in AP Style when using the term “illegal immigrants”. We have chosen to use the term until AP Style provides a more succinct and accurate verbiage when discussing illegal immigration.
Previously, we examined what it means for Colorado to be a “Sanctuary State” as well as the pros and cons that go with this designation. We also learned that Colorado is one of the top five safest states for illegal immigrants.
One reason Colorado is considered one of the safest states is because of laws like House Bill 21-1194, “Immigration Legal Defense Fund.” Here’s what this bill entails – and the pros and cons of this legislation.
No-Cost Legal Defense
Did you know illegal immigrants are protected to a certain extent by the Constitution? Indeed, they are, and this is because the Constitution uses the term “person” instead of “citizen.” A professor at Yale Law School, Cristina Rodriguez, stated to PBS, “Most of the provisions of the Constitution apply on the basis of personhood and jurisdiction in the United States.”
With the above in mind, you might be wondering how Constitutional rights apply to immigration deportation proceedings. After all, the Sixth Amendment allows everyone to have access to legal counsel when they’re facing criminal prosecution and have the state provide counsel if they can’t afford counsel on their own.
However, deportation proceedings are typically civil cases, not criminal. Consequently, the right to counsel doesn’t apply. This further means that those facing deportation either must pay for their counsel or go without representation. This is where HB 21-1194 comes into play.
Signed into Colorado law on June 25, 2021, HB 21-1194 is a first-in-the-nation bill that creates a legal defense fund totaling $100,000. This fund is a public-private partnership, meaning it’s funded both from private and public donations. The purpose of this fund? To award grants to nonprofit organizations that “provide legal advice, counseling, and representation for, and on behalf of, indigent clients who are subject to an immigration proceeding.”
In other words, if an illegal immigrant is facing deportation proceedings anywhere in Colorado and their household income doesn’t exceed 200 percent of the family federal poverty guidelines, they are entitled to free legal services and representation through the legal defense fund. However, this fund can’t be used for representation before a U.S. District Court.
The Good and Bad
Thanks to an employment rate of nearly 96.7 percent, in 2019 alone, undocumented Mexican immigrants earned almost $92 billion and contributed nearly $9.8 billion in federal, state and local taxes, according to New American Economy Research Fund. And, in 2018, in just Colorado, undocumented immigrants contributed nearly $157 million in state and local taxes, according to the latest research from American Immigration Council.
As such, when an illegal immigrant is detained, there’s an economic impact to consider. In Colorado, approximately 60 percent of illegal immigrants facing deportation don’t have representation. Lack of representation means they’re much more likely to be detained — unrepresented cases have a 22 percent chance of being granted bond during immigration trial proceedings compared to 77 percent in represented cases.
According to Colorado Fiscal Institute, in 2019, Colorado lost $350,000 in tax revenue, and $6.2 million in lost revenue to Colorado’s local economies, due to detained illegal immigrants. This does not take into account the cost of detention itself or deportation. Consequently, one of the pros of Colorado’s new legal defense fund is financial — if an illegal immigrant has representation, they’re more likely to be granted bond and thus continue to spend money and pay taxes.
Conversely, even before Colorado became a Sanctuary State and implemented laws like HB 21-1194, its immigrant population grew faster than the national average — from 2000 to 2015, it grew 45 percent compared to 39 percent nationally. And, while we don’t have updated illegal immigration figures for just Colorado, we do know that thanks to Biden’s policies, nearly 2 million people have tried to enter the U.S. illegally. That’s the third-highest in U.S. history, according to The Denver Gazette.
It’s safe to assume that laws like HB21-1194 will encourage more illegal immigrants to come to Colorado. Indeed, Andrew Lim, director of quantitative research at New American Economy, said, “Colorado is actually one of the new immigration hubs. Traditionally, we’ve thought of immigrants coming to the U.S. and staying on the coast, like in California, Washington, New York and Florida.” Here’s why this is a potential problem.
Colorado is already experiencing a housing crisis, and it’s particularly bad when it comes to affordable housing. According to George Borjas, an economist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a disproportionate percentage of immigrants have few skills. This translates to lower incomes. In fact, according to the latest available data, the Average Annual Wage of immigrants from 2014-2018 was $29,486.
Consequently, a con of HB21-1194 is that incentivizing illegal immigrants to come to Colorado will exacerbate the affordable housing crisis, making it harder for low-income, native-born citizens to find and afford housing. Plus, this has a trickle-up effect whereby as housing becomes scarcer and less affordable on the low end, it puts pressure on housing prices across the board.
Colorado Rolls Out the Red Carpet
Colorado is a Sanctuary State, and thanks to the passage of laws like HB21-1194, there’s a fair amount of incentive for illegal immigrants to come to Colorado. On the plus side, illegal immigrants have a positive economic impact on revenue, but on the other hand, it intensifies the affordable housing crisis.
Stay tuned for next week’s article, which looks at Colorado changing the term “illegal alien” to “worker without authorization” and the pros and cons of this legislation.
