This is the keynote presentation made by Todd Landfried at the University of Texas Immigration Law Conference, held in Austin, TX on October 20-21, 2011.

1. State Immigration Laws
Bad for Business?
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2. Premises Of My Talk
State immigration laws are bad ideas that do nothing other than
encourage racial and ethnic divide and segregate entire states
In no jurisdiction in the U.S. where these bills were passed have
they “worked” to anyone’s benefit
How did we get to this point?
What should businesses in Texas and other states do?
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3. Let’s Review - Nationally
In 2011 and across all state legislatures:
1,592 immigration bills were introduced including 25 SB-1070
modeled bills
Five (5) SB1070-like bills were were signed into law (20% success rate)
157 other immigration bills became law (16% success rate)
Despite the hype and media coverage, harsh immigration failed
84% of the time in the year after SB 1070.
Source: National Council of State Legislators http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?TabId=23362 3

4. Let’s Review - Texas
In the 2011 session, the Texas Legislature introduced 85
immigration-related bills
5 passed (94% failed)
No SB1070-related bills passed
No sanctuary city bills passed - including the special session
Even in conservative Texas, harsh immigration bills failed to get out
of committee
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5. Failure Rates
Metric National Texas
Percentages 84% 94%
Baseball Batting
0.160 0.052
Average
Horse Racing 19-to-100 3-to-50
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6. Enacted Legislation - Texas
Most dealt with criminal aliens, record keeping or investigative
authorities
None dealt with issues that affected business, labor or commerce
in any major way
In short, Texas business got away unscathed
Other jurisdictions who have passed these bills weren’t so lucky...
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7. Farmers Branch, TX
Referendum passed on May 17, 2007 68% to 32%
Banned landlords from renting properties to undocumented
immigrants with loss of licenses and fines up to $500/day
Rationale: blamed rising unemployment and declines in the quality
of public education, property values, and public health care on
undocumented residents
Costs: Five years of litigation costing over $3.7M; businesses lost
customers and community suffers from poor PR
Source: http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/anti-immigrant-ordinances-farmers-branch-texas 7

8. Prince William County, VA
Passed July 10, 2007
Ordinance requires PWC to check immigration status of any person at any
time using “probable cause”
Costs:
$14.9M to train & enforce county officers, not county jurisdictional officers
Foreclosures 3x regional level caused property values to plunge
Business off 66% or worse within weeks
Probable cause mandate repealed April 29, 2008
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9. Hazelton, PA
Ordinance passed in September 2007
Required employers to submit documentation to the town to prove
work eligibility and status at the town’s request
Allowed workers to sue employers for hiring undocumented workers
Ordinance outlawed providing housing to undocumented residents.
Results: $5M in lawsuit costs, increased vacancy rates, lower
property values, businesses closed
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10. State of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Taxpayer & Citizen Protection Act of 2007 (HB1804) -
May 2007 bars employers from hiring undocumented workers,
revokes business licenses, makes it a felony to transport or shelter
the undocumented; denies drivers licenses and removes state
subsidies to the undocumented
Urban Institute found little impact on public services from departure of
the undocumented because they’re ineligible for benefits anyway
Oklahoma Bankers Association study reported a loss of 90,000
unauthorized workers and families left, the net GSP loss is $1.9B
Source: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis of the Impact of the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 10

11. State of Arizona
Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 - September 2007
Mandated E-Verify statewide; imposed loss of business license
penalties; allows any citizen to make allegations against any business
Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of
2010 (SB 1070) - July 29, 2010
Made “attrition through enforcement” official state policy; makes it
illegal to hire day laborers; mandates impounding of vehicles used to
transport any undocumented person; prohibits “sanctuary city”
policies; allows private lawsuits of any government entity
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12. State of Arizona
Impacts of LAWA
Has resulted in the hiring of fewer undocumented workers
Caused reduction of undocumented population of 92,000 unrelated to
the recession
Dramatic shift to cash-based, self-employment
Reduced employment in construction, retail, restaurant, and
agriculture businesses
Source: Public Policy Institute of California. www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_311MLR.pdf 12

13. State of Arizona
Impacts of SB 1070
$5M to train law enforcement in how to enforce these laws
$186M in near-term convention and related tourism losses
$14.4B loss in Arizona GSP with departure of 30% undocumented
workers and families; $48.4B if they all leave
172,000 related job losses
$40.7M loss in state tax revenues
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14. Sound Good?
Shrinking workforce
Significantl loss of consumers
Business layoffs & closures
Broad tax base decline
Home foreclosures up, values down
Damage to business climate
Loss of investment interest
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15. They Did It
Anyway
Alabama
Indiana
Georgia
South Carolina
Utah
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16. Georgia: Learning The Hard Way
Ignoring history and evidence of policy failures, GA bill was signed
on May 12, 2011
Georgia felt the impact in days
Farmers lost field workers during prime spring fruit harvest season and
the state’s Farm Bureau projected immediate losses at $330M
Governor Deal called for impact study less than 2 weeks AFTER the
law was passed
“Pilot” convict employment program for agriculture failed miserably
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17. Alabama: Learning The Hard Way
Also ignoring history, Alabama’s law signed on June 9, 2011
Alabama felt the impact within days
Construction industry stalled as workers leave, slowing down
rebuilding process following spring tornado storms
Many businesses will lay off workers or close because they have no
expectation that “American” workers will do the work
Long-term growers of crops that are hand-picked are switching to
crops that can be mechanized
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18. Quiz
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result is the definition of...
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19. Quiz
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result is the definition of...
INSANITY
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20. Quiz
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result is the definition of...
INSANITY
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21. How Did We Get Here?
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22. How Did We Get Here?
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23. How Do We Get Out Of This?
Create and Support Active Coalitions
Business, faith, legal, and community leaders speaking out
Broad community outreach and education
Private and public meetings with elected officials
Proactive use of social and traditional media
Fund these efforts well -- your opponents are!
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24. Successful Examples
The approach of building coalitions, education, proactive media
use and legislative interaction works:
Utah - - along with the Utah Compact (another coalition effort),
defeated HB 70 and spawned creation of innovative guest worker
programs
Kansas - defeated Kris Kobach’s HB 2372 in committee
Texas - defeated copycat bills in regular and special legislative session
Arizona - defeated five SB1070 follow-on bills
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25. In Closing
Down on the ground, in the field, in the trenches, with our sleeves rolled
up, we know that coalitions can work wonders at the state house - create
or join and support them
Hold informational meetings throughout your state and invite everyone
The message needs to be these laws don’t work anywhere, so why try
them. What is past is prologue.
Demand immigration reform become a Congressional issue - no one gets
a pass
Use the media, challenge every false statement and get in the game
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26. Thank You
Todd Landfried
Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform
Email: todd@azeir.org
www.azeir.org
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