OPINION: Expect both sides to use 2010 census data within immigration bill debate

INDIANAPOLIS — The temperature plunged to zero in Indianapolis last week, but it was plenty warm in the Statehouse, thanks to heated debate over contentious issues.

Among them: A hearing that went well into the night on an immigration bill that some critics say is targeting Indiana’s fast-growing Hispanic population.

The bill would require police officers to ask people they stop  for proof they’re here legally if there is “reasonable suspicion” to believe otherwise.

Senate Bill 590, authored by Republican state Sen. Mike Delph of Carmel, would also require local and state governments to conduct most of their business in English only; it would require the state to ask Congress for reimbursement of the costs of illegal immigration; and it would limit  immigrants here illegally from accessing some services, including in-state college tuition.

The annual cost to the state of enforcing of the bill is an estimated $5 million.

Passionate arguments played out on both sides, before the bill passed out of committee and onto the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it’s to be heard next week.

Supporters argued the federal government’s failure to crack down on illegal immigrants is costing Indiana and other states millions of tax dollars spent on services used by people here illegally.

Opponents, meanwhile, charged that it will lead to racial profiling, leading police to use skin color, a foreign-sounding name or broken English as cause for asking people to prove they’re here legally.

The debate will rage on a little while longer before we know the outcome of the bill.

What may fuel the debate are some interesting numbers that came out the day after the hearing.

On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2010 census figures that show the increase in the state’s Hispanic population was larger than anticipated.

According to the Indiana Business Research Center, Hispanics accounted for 43 percent of the state’s total population growth since 2000.

The number of people who identify themselves as Hispanic grew 82 percent in the decade, from 214,536 in 2000 to 389,707 by 2010.

The center’s researchers attribute the growth to immigration and a higher birthrate among Hispanics.

I’m not speculating on what those Census numbers mean, but I will make this prediction: They’ll be used by both sides as the debate rages on.

Supporters of this immigration bill will see the state’s increasing ethnic diversity as cause for alarm; opponents of the bill will see those numbers as cause for celebration.

What may temper either side, though, is the fact that we’re still a relatively homogeneous state, according to center demographer Matt Kinghorn.

Kinghorn said the share of Indiana’s population that is white, now at about 83 percent, is “well above” the U.S. mark of 79.6 percent. And, he added, the Hispanic proportion of the U.S. population is roughly two and a half times greater than in Indiana.