Laws: July, 2003 - Number #4

The US had 288.4 million residents in July 2002. The US population was 70.1 percent non-Hispanic white; 12.7 percent Hispanic (38.8 million); 12.3 percent Black; and 4.2 percent Asian. By 2050, the US population is projected to be 53 percent non-Hispanic white; 24 percent Hispanic; 13 percent Black; and nine percent Asian.

Hispanics outnumber Blacks, meaning that "minority" no longer means Black- 40 percent of Hispanics are white. About 60 percent of US Hispanics were born in the US.

The US Census Bureau in April 2003 reported that immigrants helped to stabilize some big-city populations in 2002. For example, the largest US county, Los Angeles county, added 118,000 immigrants and lost 83,000 residents to other parts of the country; its population was 9.8 million. Cook County (Chicago) added 50,000 immigrants and lost 97,000 other residents; its population was 5.4 million.

The Census report of the 2000 population, 281.4 million, was 1.3 million too high, not three million too low, as reported previously. But the Census will not be adjusted, and thus will not affect the $185 billion the federal government distributes to the states for social services and programs like Medicaid, nor will it affect the redrawing of Congressional and local political district boundaries. The Census said it missed 44,000 residents of California, reporting the population to be 33.9 million.

According to state estimates, California had almost 36 million residents in 2002, as it once again added 600,000 people in 12 months, keeping the state on track to hit 40 million by 2010 and 50 million by 2025. Between 1940 and 1960, the state's population more than doubled, from seven million to 16 million. Since the 1980s, demographic growth has come from 500,000 births a year and 300,000 immigrants, minus 200,000 deaths.

The number of people living in concentrated poverty in the US fell 24 percent in the 1990s, from over 10 million to about eight million, reflecting the removal of high-rise public housing and the movement of poor people to suburbs. Concentrated poverty was defined as existing census tracts, places that average 4,000 residents, in which at least 40 percent of the residents had incomes below the official poverty level, $17,603 for a family of four in 2000. As poverty fell in inner cities, it increased in the inner or older suburbs.

Economist James P. Smith tracked the income mobility of Latino immigrants, and found that they earned 71 percent as much as native-born white men over their lifetimes, their sons earned 82 percent as much, and their grandchildren 85 percent as much. Smith says his analysis counters the perception that the quality of immigrants has been declining, and that Mexicans with little education do not catch up to Americans in income. (www.rand.org/hot/press.03/05.22.html)

Driver's Licenses. At least 39 states, including California, Texas, Maryland and Wisconsin, are dealing with proposals to allow unauthorized foreigners to obtain driver's licenses. The argument in favor is that all drivers should know the rules of the road, and that licenses are necessary to obtain insurance. The argument against is that driver's licenses can be "breeder documents" that facilitate the settlement of unauthorized foreigners.

California Governor Gray Davis has vetoed two bills approved by the Legislature to allow unauthorized foreigners to obtain driver's licenses. In the 2003 version, Davis insisted that unauthorized applicants for driver's licenses prove that they are employed and do not have US criminal records. The Georgia State House rejected a bill to issue driver's licenses to unauthorized foreigners on April 7, 2003, with opponents citing national security concerns. Kansas rejected a similar bill for similar reasons.

Texan lawmakers are considering a bill (SB 944) that would stamp the words "Non-citizen" on driver's licenses issued to non-US citizens. Opponents say it would lead to discrimination and racial profiling, while supporters argue it would improve security. New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia have passed laws that restrict illegal migrants' ability to get driver's licenses.

Advocates for immigrants sharply criticize the new state measures that make it harder for legal and unauthorized foreigners, saying they penalize people who have nothing to do with terrorism.

In Florida, a state judge ruled in June 2003 that a Muslim woman must remove her veil for a driver's license photo, ruling that photo identification "is essential…" to protect "the public from criminal activities and security threats."

Education. Should unauthorized children who graduate from US high schools be eligible for financial aid and be treated as in-state residents at publicly supported colleges? At least 18 states are considering proposals to give in-state tuition, and they have reached very different answers. Under 1996 federal legislation, states may not provide illegal migrants with low tuition rates not available to US citizens who do not live in the state. In most states, the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition is $10,000 to $15,000 a year.

Eight states -- Texas, California, Utah, New York, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Illinois and Washington - have passed laws that try to get around the 1996 bar by granting in-state tuition rates on the basis of criteria other than residency. Across the US, an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 unauthorized children graduate from high school each year. Proposals pending in Congress, including the Student Adjustment Act and the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), would overturn the 1996 bar on unauthorized children being treated as other state residents at public colleges.

The Colorado Legislature rejected a bill in April 2003 that would have allowed illegal migrants who spent three consecutive years in a Colorado high school to get resident tuition rates for the first year at a state college if the migrant applied for US residency during that first year. Jesus Apodaca, an 18-year-old Aurora honor student and illegal migrant, made news in summer 2002 when he announced that he was unable to attend college because he could not afford to pay out-of-state tuition rates. Maryland's governor vetoed a similar proposal in 2003.

A bill was introduced in New Jersey that would allow illegal migrants to pay in-state tuition at the state's three public universities, nine state colleges and 19 community colleges if they attended a New Jersey high school for at least three years and graduated, or received a GED in New Jersey. The legislation has stalled since being introduced in June 2002.

Do vouchers that allow K-12 students and their parents to choose which school to attend improve the test scores of minority students? Professors Paul E. Peterson and William G. Howell believe they do, and wrote in a 2002 book, "The switch to a private school [with a voucher] had significantly positive impacts on the test scores of African-American students." However, a re-analysis of the data found no test score gains.

In 1997, foundations gave $1,400 vouchers to 1,300 students selected by lottery, and the study compared these voucher students with 1,300 control students in the public schools. Across all 2,600 students, there were no differences in test scores; Peterson and Howell reached their conclusion that vouchers raise test scores by focusing on Blacks. The re-analysis of the data added Blacks to the voucher group, and concluded that there were no test score gains.

Health Insurance. During the 1990s, there have been many attempts to extend health insurance to 40 million uninsured Americans. Most US families with an employed member obtain health insurance from their employer, while elderly and poor Americans are enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. A separate Children's Health Insurance Program covers children in lower income families.

Data released in May 2003 suggest that 58 million US residents, a quarter of the non-elderly population, lacked health insurance at some point in 1998, including 21 to 31 million who were uninsured for the entire year. These data suggest that many people lose and gain health insurance coverage during the year. Of those who lost health insurance in 1996-97, 45 percent were uninsured for four months or less, 26 percent were uninsured for five to 12 months, and 13 percent lacked coverage for 13 to 24 months, while 16 percent were uninsured more than two years.

Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Richard Gephardt have proposed plans to extend coverage to about 30 million additional US residents.

A 17-year-old Mexican girl received a new heart and lung at Duke University, but died after surgeons transplanted organs from a donor with the wrong blood type. There were 24,000 transplants in the US in 2002, and an average 80,000 people on waiting lists for organs. There was criticism of Duke because the girl was not authorized to be in the US, but Duke noted that federal law says priority for transplants depends solely on "medical criteria."

A bill introduced in the California Legislature would ban the use of children as interpreters for their non-English speaking parents in medical, legal or social service settings. Doctors and hospitals objected, saying that being required to provide translators would increase their costs.

Welfare Reform. Under 1996 welfare reforms, federal funds cannot be used to provide Medicaid and State Child Health Insurance Program benefits to legal aliens who arrived after August 22, 1996 for their first five years in the US. About 20 states use their own money to cover costs for pregnant women and children who are legal aliens, and the Bush administration opposes a bill pending in Congress that would allow federal funding to cover all immigrant children and pregnant women at a cost of $120 million a year.

The number of people receiving cash assistance fell by over 50 percent between 1996 and 2002, and the authors of a book entitled "Finding Jobs: Work and Welfare Reform," aim to determine whether the decline in caseloads will continue, and what will happen to ex-recipients. Most of the chapters are cautionary, emphasizing that the jobs taken by ex-recipients are often unstable, and that many of them do not offer child care or health care benefits.

In 2002, the Little Hoover Commission released a report, "We the People: Helping Newcomers Become Californians," that urged the creation of a Golden State Residency Program to encourage immigrants to establish residency, become citizens and vote, learn English, pay taxes, be better parents and participate in civic affairs. (www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/report166.html)

Rachel L. Swarns, " Immigrants Feel the Pinch of Post-9/11 Lawsear," New York Times, June 25, 2003. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "State takes the lead on policies for immigrants," Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2003. Robert Pear, "New Study Finds 60 Million Uninsured During a Year," New York Times, May 13, 2003. Carl Ingram, "Driver License Measure Clears First Hurdle," Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2003. Paul E. Peterson and William G. Howell. 2002. The Education Gap. Vouchers and Urban Schools. Brookings Institution. Card, David and Rebecca M. Blank. 2002. Eds. Finding Jobs: Work and Welfare Reform. Russell Sage. www.russellsage.org/