Immigration Discussion Yields No Answers : Business: Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. holds talk to seek position on pending legislation.

VAN NUYS —  The complexity of the illegal immigration issue was demonstrated Wednesday when a panel of immigration specialists and politicians sought to answer the question of its impact on San Fernando Valley businesses. The resounding answer was: Nobody knows.

And the division over the debate was exemplified by the opposing views of two Valley congressmen over the issue of denying automatic citizenship to U. S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Both were greeted with applause from the group of Valley business people.

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. held the luncheon discussion to help it form positions on pending federal immigration legislation. But the two-hour discussion may have raised more questions than it answered.

Still, the majority of the group of about 100 people at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys seemed to agree that something needs to be done to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

“I think the business community is ready to support stronger legislation, but only under the condition of not being made scapegoats,” said Walter W. Mosher Jr., VICA’s chairman and president of Precision Dynamics Corp. of San Fernando.

“I think VICA might support that because I don’t think there are any business members of VICA who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.”

“I do think there has to be better control of the border,” said Benjamin M. Reznik, a land-use attorney and former VICA chairman who is a naturalized citizen from Israel. “Why have a border if you’re not going to patrol it?

“The business community has had it both ways. We’ve benefited from lower wages but we don’t want serious sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants. My position is, don’t make the problem the workplace, make it the border. We can’t be policemen at the workplace.”

The issue of denying citizenship to U. S.-born children of illegal immigrants separates Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills). Berman opposes changing the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States, while Beilenson supports it.

But both congressmen support beefing up the Border Patrol and implementing a counterfeit-proof national identification card for all citizens and legal residents.

“I don’t know of any other way not to discriminate against someone because of their skin color,” Beilenson said.

Both politicians also oppose denying public education to children of illegal immigrants: “I just think that is a crazy idea,” Berman said.

Demographer Kevin McCarthy of the Rand Corp. think tank in Santa Monica further muddied the debate when he told the group that most perceptions of immigrants today are based on studies done 10 years ago. He said those studies were based on a limited pool of 10% to 20%, which is probably not representative of the immigrant population.

But regardless of how current the data, the attitude of Californians toward immigrants has definitely changed, he said.

“In the last few years, the majority attitude was one of at least benign neglect if not acceptance--a general belief that immigrants and the state have served each other well,” McCarthy said. “Today, there is a growing sense that if immigration is not out of control, there are simply too many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, and their presence is hurting the state.”

McCarthy said the state’s economic slowdown and the increasing immigrant population has increased the visibility of immigrants. But he said there are still a lot of questions unanswered about the impact of a tougher immigration policy on the state’s economy because the state’s future labor needs are unknown at a time when its population keeps growing primarily because of increasing immigration.

McCarthy said the debate should distinguish between immigration and immigrants--those that will be entering the country in the future compared to those already here.