National coverage of the immigration debate gives the impression the story is happening inside the halls of Washington, D.C., or on the streets of Los Angeles.

Politicians sounding off about border security and students protesting policies they consider anti-immigrant are indeed part of the story.

But so is Nebraska.

Census data show that immigration has fueled much of the state’s growth in the past 15 years. While immigrants come to Nebraska from an array of countries, many are Hispanic and many were born in Mexico or other Latin American nations.

The national debate has centered on those immigrants who came illegally.

The rule-of-law side says build a wall between the United States and Mexico, round up the illegals and send them back. Others in the camp would charge unauthorized immigrants with felonies, making them ineligible to ever qualify for citizenship.

On the other side are those who would grant amnesty, so the hard-working immigrants can fully join the communities where they live, put down roots and otherwise pursue a better life for their children.

But who are the people in Nebraska at the center of the debate?

How many unauthorized immigrants live here?

What do they do?

And what would happen if they suddenly obtained citizenship, or if they suddenly left?

In other words, what claim does Nebraska have on this national debate?

How many?

For obvious reasons, officials can only estimate the number of people living in the United States without authorization.

The Pew Hispanic Center of Washington, D.C., places the national estimate between 11.5 million and 12 million. Of those, the center estimates 49 percent are men, 35 percent women and 16 percent children.

An estimated 56 percent of the total came from Mexico and 22 percent from the rest of Latin America.

Nebraska advocates and officials say they simply do not know how many unauthorized immigrants live in this state. But a report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social research group, said between 25,000 and 50,000 unauthorized immigrants live in Nebraska. The group used government reports from 2000 and 2002 as its sources.

The 2004 American Community Survey, produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, put the state’s total Hispanic population at just over 118,000, a number advocates believe is a little low. Cecilia Huerta, director of the Nebraska Mexican-American Commission, said the true number is more likely 125,000.

What jobs?

Any job that involves hard, physical labor.

Undocumented immigrants work in meatpacking, building construction, road construction, roofing, landscaping and farm labor.

They work jobs behind the scenes in restaurants and hotels — washing dishes, busing tables, preparing food, making beds, doing laundry.

But you won’t find them in the white-collar sectors.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that unauthorized workers represent nearly 5 percent of the nation’s labor pool.

Based upon the Urban Institute estimates, unauthorized workers could represent between 3 percent and 6 percent of Nebraska’s privately employed workforce.

What are the economics?

Unauthorizied immigrants fill the jobs U.S. residents don’t want. Right?

When it comes to immigration, it’s easy to find wildly divergent answers to the same question.

For example, a nonpartisan research group called the Center for Immigration Studies says labor data show illegal immigrants displace American workers, particularly high school dropouts and those without education beyond high school.

Most agree that unauthorized immigrants have no access to government social service benefits in this country. Nor do the sides argue that the population tends to work for relatively low wages. So, if those low-income immigrants were suddenly granted legal status, they would likely seek out the social service benefits that had been previously denied them, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Rather than viewing immigrants as a potential drain, however, one economics professor in Nebraska found they provided substantial economic benefits to their communities.

Hendrick VandenBerg, associate economics professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studied the question in Lexington. Immigration largely fueled the growth of the central Nebraska community from about 6,000 people in 1990 to more than 10,000 in 2000.  Now, one out of every two Lexington residents is Hispanic.

As a result of the growth, Lexington’s property values and tax revenues increased, all rental housing was filled and shuttered store fronts opened, VandenBerg said. The overall growth of the local economy even increased wages for non-immigrants.

And if every unauthorized immigrant were suddenly arrested and sent back to their country of origin?

“It would be devastating to the state in the short run,” VandenBerg said.

And not just in communities with high immigrant populations like Lexington, Schuyler and South Sioux City. The effect would be felt in many communities, including Lincoln and Omaha, he said.

“It would be a harsh blow, I don’t think there would be any doubt about that.”

What’s next?

Regardless of their positions on immigration, everyone agrees the current system needs fixed.

Those who work with immigrants say these people bring their culture, their love of family and their strong work ethic to Nebraska. We should welcome them and treat them like assets, not criminals.

Most would prefer to follow proper channels and get governmental authorization to be in this country. But the system provides virtually no way for them to do so, said Darcy Tromanhauser, a staff member for Nebraska Appleseed, a legal advocacy group in Lincoln.

“We have an economy that says ‘Come here, we need you,’ but we don’t have a system to legally bring them to the state,” she said.

Olga Kanne agrees. The Lincoln woman, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Panama, said she believes immigration laws should be enforced. So she urged lawmakers to create a system that’s enforceable.

Rather than deport, set a fine that unauthorized immigrants currently living in Nebraska can pay. They will, she predicted, because they want to comply with the law.

“They’re not criminals,” she said. “They came here to feed their families.

“They came here out of desperation.”

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.