Latino population expert David Hayes-Bautista has a simple response for people who complain about immigrants draining the public system. Their U.S. –born children "are the future" of the United States labor force.

U.S.-born Latinos are expected to be a large part of the labor force that will support Baby Boomers in their retirement years, the University of California at Los Angeles professor said during a presentation in San Diego.

"This is the best news for Baby Boomers," Hayes-Bautista said, using the name given to Americans born during the post-World War II baby boom, between 1946 and 1964.

Hayes-Bautista, speaking at the Logan Heights Public Library last week, presented a view of Latinos that is often overlooked or overshadowed in the nation's heated immigration debate. The U.S.-born children of immigrants are just as likely as any other American group to pay taxes when they enter the labor force and will help fund the public retirement and health care expenses of aging Baby Boomers.

"One Latino is born every 30 seconds," said Hayes-Bautista, director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine.

"They will grow up and pay for all these things (with their taxes): Medicare, Social Security, pension and retirements – if we educate them," he said, speaking to about 100 mostly young Latinos at the event hosted by King-Chavez Neighborhood Schools.

The percentage of Latinos in the work force is expected to grow from 14 percent to 29 percent by 2050, according to National Council of La Raza calculations using U.S. Census figures.

The percentage of the general population that is 65 years or older, meanwhile, will increase during that time from 13 percent to 20 percent.

The nation's Latino population, which includes U.S.-born citizens and legal and undocumented immigrants, has grown from 35 million to nearly 50 million since 2000, according to preliminary Census 2010 figures. The U.S. Census Bureau this month will begin releasing population counts based on race and ethnicity for individual states.

Hayes-Bautista predicted a variety of reactions when official Latino counts are released:

"There are those who will say ‘Oh my God, all these Latinos. They're gang-banging, illegal immigrant, teen-age welfare moms. I don't want them.' They'll be talking trash about them."

Others will say: "‘Oh, here's the labor force of the future'. ..Businesses will say, ‘Oh, we have more customers.'"

California's Latino population grew by about 25 percent during the 2000s, from 11 million to nearly 14 million, according to preliminary U.S. Census Bureau figures. Other states, particularly in the South, registered much larger percentage increases but Latino growth in California was significant because without it the state's general population would have shrunk, he said.

California's population grew by about 10 percent during the 2000s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As has been the case for more than two centuries now, Latino population growth has been fueled largely by births, he said.

California's Latino population has grown by nearly six million since 1990 and U.S.-born Latinos account for 80 percent of that total, he said.

"It's births, births, births," he said, adding that other groups are simply not having as many children as before.

Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com