Soon we'll know to what extent election-year politicking has fueled the heated debate over immigration in state and national halls of government. But even after the November elections, experts say the issue of immigration reform must be dealt with for the sake of the U.S. economy and national security.

While people on both sides of the debate seem to agree that immigration is a federal issue, Georgia and other states have stepped in to address what is seen as a lack of action on the national level. In April, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which restricted health care access for undocumented adults. The law also will phase in a requirement that companies that do business with state or local governments use a federal work authorization program to verify the legal status of new hires, or they will lose a state tax deduction.

That second measure is meant to address the demand for labor that has attracted an estimated 470,000 illegal immigrants to Georgia, most of them from Mexico. In August, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report said that Georgia has the fastest-growing illegal immigrant population in the nation, more than doubling in the last five years.

In a nation that has a long history of being made stronger by waves of immigration, the issue seems to have come to a tipping point. Opinion polls show that a large percentage of Americans favor some sort of immigration reform.

This year, immigrants (illegal and legal) made their voices heard at nationwide protests against immigration crackdowns. And in May, many immigrants illustrated their impact on the economy by staying home from work and not spending money for a day.

No matter where someone stands on the issue, there is little doubt that immigrants contribute greatly to the nation's economy and, at the same time, are straining the public health care and education systems.

Working primarily in low-paying jobs, many of the undocumented and legal workers toil daily at Georgia's chicken processing plants, factories, construction sites, landscaping jobs and more.

In the home-building sector of Georgia's economy, the influx of both legal and illegal immigrants has had a significant impact, said Jeffrey Humphreys, director of the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth.

"We have not seen home prices increase like the rest of the country," Humphreys said. "But the bad news is construction workers have not been paid as well as would otherwise have been the case."

Job growth

Using U.S. Census Bureau data, which he notes tends to undercount undocumented residents because they aren't likely to respond to the survey, Humphreys said employment in Georgia grew by 35 percent from 1997 to 2002, compared with 27 percent growth across the country.

During the same time period, he said, wages in Georgia increased by 8.3 percent vs. a 15 percent increase for workers in the country as a whole. The influx of immigrants "over that period of time allowed construction to expand without pushing up wages," Humphreys said.

Still, he quickly debunks the common complaint of many people who say that immigrant workers are displacing Georgians from jobs.

"The unemployment rate was very low in Georgia during this time," Humphreys said. "People didn't lose jobs during this time; they just didn't see their wages increase as rapidly as in other states. One reason we're getting an influx of these workers is that we're demographically challenged."

A need for labor

The U.S. and Georgia populations are growing older, on average. That is causing the demand for labor to outstrip the supply, which is what makes the issue so vexing for people who speak up for the rights of immigrants.

Tisha Tallman, legal counsel for the Southeast office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said last May's boycott of work and businesses by Hispanic immigrants — which caused businesses to close and many construction work sites to go idle — clearly illustrated their contribution.

And, she said, the economy's dependence on immigrant labor is projected to increase in coming years.

"Economists project that the types of jobs that will be needed in the future require physical labor and will be low-paying," Tallman said. "Those jobs are often filled by undocumented workers, who tend to be younger."

State Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta), a Mexican-American, opposed several versions of immigration reform introduced in the General Assembly last spring and worked on the compromise legislation signed by the governor. His primary argument was that the federal system needed reform and that the state shouldn't deal with immigration.

While he isn't running to return to the state Senate this fall, he still rails at what he views as the hypocrisy of businesses that court undocumented workers, and consumers who enjoy lower prices while complaining about the presence of immigrants.

"The whole economy has become complicit in recruiting illegal workers into this country," Zamarripa said. "For the foreseeable future, we are going to be net importers of labor. The business community has been irresponsible in letting this debate be defined in ethnic and racial terms."

He cites a couple of exceptions, including hotel magnate William Marriott and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which support federal immigration reform that secures borders and requires verification of worker eligibility but also addresses labor demand with a new temporary-worker program.

The American business community finds itself in a quandary. Employers need more workers but are under increasing pressure to hire only people who are in the United States legally.

"Business is afraid to take a stand because it's not popular," said Al Vivian, president and CEO of Basic Diversity Inc. in Fayetteville. "But I think we should be kind of happy to see immigrants coming, because they contribute to the tax base."

Economic impact

According to a recent report by Humphreys, Hispanic buying power in Georgia in 2006 is $12.4 billion. The same report puts Asian buying power in Georgia at $7.4 billion.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the wave of immigrants has benefited the state economy greatly," Humphreys said. "When the wave of immigration started in the mid-1990s, the labor market was tight. Our manufacturing couldn't have grown the way it has without immigrants."

Humphreys said he believes the country needs immigration reform that will curtail the flow of undocumented workers, but will create a better path to citizenship. In the meantime, he said, Georgia should let the federal government do the job for the good of the state economy. Otherwise, nearby states without measures like Georgia's immigration law will be more attractive to manufacturers looking for new locations.

"You don't want to handicap Georgia in relation to our neighbors in the Southeast," Humphreys said. "It puts Georgia at a bit of a competitive disadvantage. If you were going to [locate] a poultry processing plant, would you choose Georgia or another state without restrictions?"

According to Vivian, securing the country's borders is critical, "not to protect [the United States] from Mexicans, but, if Mexicans can get in, so can terrorists."

The focus should be on pushing business to verify its work force and not on punishing immigrants for coming to work, Vivian said.

"Never before in the world has there been what is essentially a Third World nation next to the wealthiest nation and there's no [large body of] water to prevent you from getting there," Vivian said. "If it was me on the Third World side, I'd jump across the border, too."

Tallman, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, adds that Mexican immigrants are contributing to the United States beyond their labor, just as newcomers have in centuries past.

"It's important to note they also contribute socially and culturally to this country," Tallman said. "And we should encourage that."