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Opinion
Jul. 17, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: The costs of illegal immigration

Local entities rarely bother to keep track

Governments are infatuated with numbers. Elected officials must see concrete figures to be able to defend their spending priorities.

So government tracks darn near everything. Domestic violence arrests. Home sales. Public school enrollment. Incidents of disease. Tax collections. Tourist traffic. Population growth. Highway accidents. Marriage licenses. And on and on and on. All calculated to the most miniscule unit of measurement, all data available to inquiring members of the taxpaying public.

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    • But as Congress and scores of state and local governments grapple with the most important, divisive domestic policy issue of the day -- illegal immigration -- little specific information is available.

    Want to know how many times local attorneys have asked to have a case assigned to a different judge? You can get an answer that day. Want to know how many millions of dollars worth of free health care is provided to illegal immigrants in Southern Nevada? That information isn't available.

    Want to know how many registered sex offenders live in your neighborhood? Just log onto the Internet. But ask how many schoolchildren are illegal immigrants, or how many are the "anchor babies" of illegal immigrants, and you'll get a shoulder shrug from Nevada's education bureaucracy.

    On Sunday, the Review-Journal wrapped up a three-part investigative series on the local impact of illegal immigration. Its most powerful finding: the institutions most affected by illegal immigration are not documenting the economic costs and social consequences of illegal immigration, and a few are blatantly ignoring them.

    Demographers can offer only broad ranges of figures when asked to nail down exactly how many illegal immigrants are in any one area. Nationally, guesses on the number of illegals range from 10 million to 20 million. In Clark County, the Review-Journal's best efforts resulted in an estimate of between 120,000 and 200,000 -- or between 6 and 10 percent of the county's total population.

    Clark County recently diverted $60 million from parks to bail out University Medical Center, the region's only public hospital. Everyone in government knows uninsured illegal immigrants contribute to the hospital's operating deficit. But exactly how much? The best the hospital can do is say that three out of every four patients who did not provide a Social Security number last year were Hispanic.

    Hispanic enrollment in the Clark County School District has exploded since 1998. While overall enrollment is up 49 percent since then, the Hispanic student population is up 132 percent. The number of students not proficient in English has grown 136 percent since 1998, and 94 percent of the program's students are Spanish speakers.

    So how many of those students are illegal immigrants, or the children of illegal immigrants? The district doesn't know and doesn't intend to find out.

    The state's public university system is similarly indifferent to the issue.

    What about Medicaid and welfare benefits? Some social service agencies are strictly prohibited from asking a person's residency status.

    A cynic might conclude that it's in the best interest of the various government bureaucracies to ignore the situation -- after all, the more people need government "services," the faster government grows. Or perhaps government officials realize that if the public ever got wind of just how much illegal immigration is costing them, taxpayers might stage a revolt.

    If Congress, states and local governments want to be taken seriously when addressing illegal immigration, they first must use their significant powers to get their hands on hard numbers. We know public institutions have the means, the procedures and the personnel to figure out how many illegals are here and what they're costing taxpaying citizens. Accumulating such data should be a priority for Congress and the 2009 Nevada Legislature.

    It's past time for government to finally complete these calculations so the public can know just how serious the situation has become.



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    Richard Marsteller wrote on August 12, 2007 09:05 AM: The Government don't want you to know how much it's costing to have all these Illegals here. If the Government would pass a law that the Employers of these illegals is to pay their Health Care then we wouln't have as many illegals here. And our Tax money would not go to Aliens who are unlawful.


    Bigjer wrote on July 19, 2007 02:45 PM: P.S. Forgot to mention , I am a Sheriff that you Joe called lazy, lets meet and discuss it....???


    Bigjer wrote on July 19, 2007 02:43 PM: JOE & his brother,Dougie Demo:
    Where do you CLOWNS' live, I'd like to talk to you in person...


    jer999 wrote on July 19, 2007 02:22 PM: If this is any help on the cost of Illegals ,
    go to :Immigrationcounters.com


    jerry harvey wrote on July 19, 2007 01:51 PM: in the 1960s,1970s and 1980s, we who lived in arizona suffered the latino invasion. our hospitals were overrun with non-english speaking women having their babies. they took hundreds of thousands of jobs away from americans (i worked at el toro fertilizer plant in Phoenix in the 60s); not jobs americans wouldn't do. finally, after more than 10% of all latinos currently alive have invaded my country, others are seeing some of the price for rescuing strays. google "immigration gumballs" if you want a good presentation of the problem of illegal migrants. note i say migrant, not immigrant; it is my experience they have no intention of integrating into or accepting the society in place in America.


    Ken wrote on July 17, 2007 09:16 PM: After reading some of these comments, its safe to assume that if I knowingly employed a child molester because he just wanted to better his life, And was a good worker, and would work for less than the average person, AND I knew that he was molesting your son. Would that be cool with you?
    Surely you could'nt blame me, Im just doing my part as an American, Right. Why should I care if someone else gets hurt in my battle to become like those terrible Haliburton people? Why should I care if someone robs a bank? Their just trying to make a better life for themselves, right?


    Joe C wrote on July 17, 2007 08:30 PM: Doug my boy,
    Your name calling, exaggerated statements and insults have giving me an epiphany.
    I will now offer nothing but praise for our undocumented Americans. Any question about cost is just racist jabber.
    Asking for good common sense cost investigation can’t hold water to name calling insults.
    You and President Bush can’t be wrong when it comes to undocumented Americans right? I hope you like your company.


    Joe C wrote on July 17, 2007 08:20 PM: Doug,
    All your name-calling, insults and exaggerated tales have did the impossible. I am now a believer; anything other than praise or any cost questions concerning undocumented Americans is just racist.
    The name calling and throwing away of common sense investigation can’t hold water to insults.
    You and President Bush must be right. You guys are the decider about right and wrong.
    That can’t be bad for America, right, when has Bush been wrong?
    Thanks we are safe now.


    WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot wrote on July 17, 2007 08:14 PM: I find it moronic that any time someone brings up illegal immigrants, the first words out of many mouths is "racist." Why is someone against illegal immigration a racist? Is it because a large majority of the illegals are hispanic? I, personally, don't give a damn WHAT color the illegal alien is OR where they're from. They should be immediately sent packing to their country of origin. It's that simple. If you're not here legally, you're in violation of United States immigration laws and you're out! If someone considers me a racist because I'm vehemently against illegal immigration, then that's their problem, not mine.


    Douglas Democrat wrote on July 17, 2007 08:03 PM: Steve and Joe

    I would suggest that both of you perform an anatomically impossible act.

    And with that, I bid you a good day. Can't say it hasn't been a little slice of heaven...because it hasn't.


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