Study: Entrants cost AZ workers $1.4B a year

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

Arizona workers lose $1.4 billion in wages a year because companies here hire illegal entrants, according to a study commissioned by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

George Borjas, a professor of economic and social policy at Harvard University, also concluded that foreigners in the state illegally have reduced the employment rate of legal Arizona residents.

Hardest hit in both wages and job availability, he said, are high school dropouts who, at the bottom of the wage scale, are the ones most likely to be competing with illegal immigrants.

The study is being presented to U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, who is hearing a challenge to a new state law making it illegal to knowingly employ illegal border crossers.