Immigration: Washington Fiddles, California Hurts : Missing is an adequate national policy for this controversial issue

Although the heated debate over immigration reflects a complex national issue that ultimately must be addressed by Washington, the impact of the continuing influx of foreigners falls most heavily on a single state, California. Two articles in The Times last week vividly illustrated the situation.

--In Washington, the Immigration and Naturalization Service released statistics on the magnitude of legal immigration to the United States and where new immigrants choose to settle. Not surprisingly, California attracted the lion’s share. With 810,635 foreigners officially admitted to this country in 1992 (the biggest one-year increase in legal immigration since the turn of the century), 41% settled in California. This flood of newcomers to the state is increasing pressure on an already strained infrastructure.

--In Orange County, U.S. Border Patrol agents have been boarding public transit buses randomly searching for illegal immigrants. Local transit officials rightly question the wisdom of these operations. They fear raids on crowded buses will endanger innocent passengers, drivers and others on highways and streets.

Although the two articles deal with distinctly different facets of the issue--legal versus illegal immigration--they are tightly connected by a single fact: As with so many other immigration-related problems in California, the best solution in each case lies not here but in Washington.

For example, the INS statistics confirm what immigration researchers long have suspected: Despite a painful economic readjustment that has led to heavy job losses in California’s aerospace and defense industries, this state remains a huge magnet for economically ambitious foreigners.

To some degree, this attraction exists because so many immigrants already are here; their communities, from the barrios of Los Angeles to San Francisco’s Chinatown, are welcoming havens. However, it exists also because California still offers many of the advantages that drew earlier newcomers, most notably a great climate and a great location for doing business, either local or global.

As we look toward the state’s inevitable economic rebound, never should we underestimate the bountiful energy, entrepreneurial spirit, skills and talents in the ranks of the new arrivals, many of whom are reuniting with family members living here. But how can a society absorb so many immigrants without incurring huge expenses? The answer is it can’t. They use public hospitals. Their children must be educated. Clearly, it is both unfair and unwise to ask California taxpayers to pick up the tab for all this.

That’s the main reason that illegal immigration has become such a hot-button issue in California. State taxpayers worry that immigrants cost too much, and certainly they have a point--the federal government’s own statistics prove we are bearing most of the impact of immigration.

Congress must do much more to help California financially if the issue is to be defused politically. Congress must also find a more effective and efficient way to guard the nation’s borders. Present enforcement policy veers toward the absurd.

Does it really make sense for Border Patrol agents to run around Orange County (and other places) many miles from the border, making an occasional arrest, when hundreds of arrests easily can be made each night immediately along the border? We think not. Neither does the General Accounting Office, which for years has been urging that the Border Patrol be combined with the Customs Service, Coast Guard and other federal agencies into a more effective border-management agency. The Clinton Administration flirted briefly with this idea as part of its plan to “reinvent government.” But it backed away in the face of bureaucratic opposition. Too bad. It’s an excellent idea.

If the INS were to be relieved of this overwhelming law-enforcement responsibility, it could better focus on other important tasks. As the porous border became better managed, the immigration agency could help longtime illegal residents to better assimilate into American life (foremost by becoming citizens) and help Congress track those powerful international population trends that increasingly help determine our demographic future.

What’s clear is that current federal policies do not work, cannot work and must change. Until then, California will be left to sort out these problems with little help from anyone.