LITTLE ROCK
A report prepared for legislators says Arkansas pays about $170 million a year to educate, imprison and provide services to immigrants a fraction of the amount, according to a separate study, that they contribute to the state's economy.
The bulk of the money spent on immigrants goes toward education, about $154 million. State agencies said it is sometimes impossible to tell whether legal or illegal immigrants are benefiting from state services.
"Immigration law is about as bad as tax laws with all of the ifs, ands or buts," said Andre Guerrero, director of programs for language minority students at the state Department of Education. For example, he said, pupils in the country illegally can be educated in public schools at the state's expense, but Arkansas won't let them qualify for state-funded college scholarships.
"Their counselors very proudly are preparing them to go to college (and say), 'There's something you need to know.' And at that point, these doors close to these children, these students," Guerrerro said.
The idea of tax dollars paying to educate the children of illegal immigrants drew criticism from several lawmakers during the joint House and Senate meeting of their Committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. State Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, suggested requiring incoming students to furnish a Social Security number; Guerrero said that would be "chilling."
About 88 percent of all English-language learners in state schools speak Spanish. Guerrero said most need three or four years to test out of the program which cost $19.3 million as of October 2006. The other $134 million came from regular education funding.
The Springdale School District ranked first among English-language learning students with 6,126 about 37 percent of the district's 16,511 students.
In the judicial system, illegal immigrants comprised a small percentage of overall costs. The state Department of Correction estimated it spent $1.8 million last year to house 158 illegal immigrants. Currently, the state has 14,173 inmates. Out of 52,000 offenders under parole or probation supervision, only 283 are illegal immigrants.
