PERSPECTIVE ON IMMIGRATION : The Divisiveness of Half-Truths : Do undocumented workers take more than they give in taxes? No. This scapegoating is getting dangerous.

There they go again!

This week it was Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s turn to unveil a new report blaming undocumented workers for the financial crisis we are experiencing in Los Angeles County.

Antonovich hailed the report, ordered by the Board of Supervisors and paid for by the taxpayers, as proving that undocumented people have a negative impact on costs, revenues and services in Los Angeles County. Yet the report was not confined to undocumented residents; it included recent legal immigrants, legal residents who were granted amnesty through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and U.S.-born “children of undocumented persons,” who, of course, are citizens.

Antonovich and company argue that the costs of these four groups of “immigrants” on social services is exorbitant--close to $1 billion. They fail to acknowledge that the same study shows the “immigrants” paying $4.3 billion in taxes, mostly to federal and state government. The fact that Washington and Sacramento didn’t share the revenue to compensate for the county’s services is hardly the people’s fault.

Reports like this one presented by Antonovich, with their combination of half-truths, hidden facts and exaggerated claims, are directly responsible for the climate of intolerance against Latinos prevalent in these hard financial times.

Although the focus of the report is the use of educational, health and social services by immigrants of all national origins, the true context of this issue is not educational, medical, scientific or sociological. The real context is political, and its implications, true or false, good or bad, accurate or distorted, have an impact on the public perception of the Latino community.

For many years we Hispanics/Latinos complained that our portrait as executed by some sectors of the Establishment has been unfair, incomplete, sometimes mean and usually distorted. As a community we have passed from being invisible into being problem-people.

While it is true that we have a lot of problems, and it is also true that we create some problems, that is not all we do; we are not the only ones with problems, and we are not the only ones who create problems.

It all began when Gov. Pete Wilson blamed welfare spending for the state’s financial troubles. Unwilling to confront the realities of a new post-Cold War economy in a state so dependent upon a war economy, and ignoring the decline in productivity of some manufacturing sectors in a new and more competitive global environment, Wilson had the audacity to maintain that it was the heavy reliance on welfare of people coming from out of state that was responsible for California’s economic crisis.

Immediately, the debate centered on the foreigners, and mostly on people who did not look European. Latinos, many people said, are abusing our system, and reports began surfacing that purportedly proved this--first, the San Diego County report, now the Los Angeles County report and soon the Orange County report.

As if all this negative reporting was not enough, the public image of Latinos suffered even more with the ads of desperate politicians seeking votes. I still feel anger remembering that ad from our since-defeated Sen. John Seymour, where he tried to look tall and tough, demanding the deportation of all jailed criminals who had entered the country illegally. The way he presented the problem was faultless, and no one could disagree with him. In fact, the government already does deport undocumented persons who have completed jail sentences.

What subliminal message was Seymour sending? I cannot help but feel that he was nurturing xenophobia in the minds of white suburban voters who, unable to understand why the American way of life is deteriorating, fear for their future and have to place the blame on someone. Seymour delivered the scapegoat: the undocumented worker who cannot defend himself.

What bothers me is that playing to fear puts the human rights of all undocumented persons in jeopardy. What worries me is that when these messages arrive at small border communities, they are heard as permission for lynching raids on camps where weary human beings are only trying to rest after a long, hard day. What troubles me is that the association between criminality and immigrants will remain in the minds of people who will discriminate against anyone who “looks Mexican,” even fellow American citizens.

This misperception of the foreigner as a predator is a direct result of our politicians’ failure to solve the problems they promised us they would solve if only we would vote for them.

Elected officials shouldn’t be allowed to get away with distortions that encourage prejudice. Here are some facts:

* About 80% of all Latino males in California are permanently in the labor force; only 6% of all Latinos are on welfare.

* Latinos live an average of four years longer than whites and 11 years longer than blacks, according to David Hayes Bautista of UCLA; Latinos have lower rates of infant mortality, the lowest incidence of strokes, heart attacks and cancer, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

* Undocumented workers fill jobs that local workers will not accept; they stimulate the local economy by expanding the overall level of employment and lower the cost of locally produced goods and services.

We must put an end to this nonsense about the negative effects of immigration and embark upon a more constructive route that considers how we should meet the needs and improve this labor force that our economy demands. If we do not meet their needs, there will be consequences that will affect us all. The state’s non-minority population is aging and its fertility rate is dropping. By the year 2000, the U.S. labor force growth will be primarily among minorities, immigrants and white women.

Faced with these demographic realities, it is to our benefit to ensure excellence in our labor force. But this won’t happen unless our elected officials understand that either they change their attitude or we will have to change them.