Thread: Houston Newspaper:IGNORANCE IS COSTLIER THAN ILLEGALS

Another Pro ILLEGAL COMMENTARY from the Houston Newspaper!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5737683.html

April 28, 2008, 11:33PM
COMMENTARY
Ignorance is costlier than immigrants


By LISA FALKENBERG
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

TOOLS
Email Get section feed
Print Recommend (13)
Comments (353) Yahoo! Buzz
We're under siege. They're swamping our schools and hospitals. They're compounding the crime rate. They're declaring a cultural war by refusing to learn English and otherwise assimilate into American culture.

Those are some of the public perceptions, anyway, of illegal immigrants, as reflected in Rice University sociology professor Stephen Klineberg's latest annual Houston Area Survey.

On some level, it's easy to see how well-founded concerns over immigration could have devolved into widespread hysteria after three years of constant politicization and media hype.

Those who consider illegal immigrants a "very serious" problem totaled 61 percent, up from 43 percent in 2006.

That's the perception. What are the facts?


Debt paid
Let's take the issue of illegal immigrants straining tax-funded services like schools and hospitals, which was the main reason 2008 survey respondents said they saw illegal immigration as a problem.

Indeed, the children of illegal immigrants are filling desks in Texas schools. A December 2006 report by the Texas Comptroller's Office estimated that there were 135,000 of them, costing the state slightly less than $957 million a year. Another 3,792 were in state colleges, costing about $11.2 million.

Illegal immigrants' total cost for state services was $1.15 billion, a whopping figure worthy of outrage, unless you consider the fact that illegal immigrants are taxpayers, too.

The sales and property taxes paid by as many as 1.6 million illegal immigrants in Texas provided $1.58 billion for the state. They seem to have paid back what they took, plus $424.7 million.


Media fuels fear
The picture was different for local governments, however. Immigrants, like any group of people, include those who get sick, have babies and commit crimes. The biggest local bill was for indigent health care. In 2005, care for illegal immigrants cost the Harris County Hospital District $97.3 million, or 14 percent of the system's total operating cost.

That portion of the hospital district's $1 billion budget is now about 10 percent, David Lopez, president and CEO, said last week during a town hall on immigration aired live on Houston PBS Channel 8. He said that because immigrants tend to be healthier than the average U.S. population, most of the care was given in the emergency room and maternity wards — not for "tummy tucks and face lifts."

Still, the comptroller concluded in the 2006 study that illegal immigrants were not a drain, but a boost on the state's overall economy, to the tune of $17.7 billion.

Crime was the second most popular reason why survey respondents believe immigration is a problem locally. And why not? We in the media are constantly playing up the "illegal immigrant" angle in crimes such as drunken driving or robbery.

On Monday, the Chronicle's Web site displayed a headline on the main story declaring, "Prosecution: 'Cold-blooded' illegal immigrant killed HPD officer."

Juan Leonard Quintero may indeed be a "cold-blooded killer," as a Harris County prosecutor claimed during his murder trial in the execution-style death of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson.

And while it's clear that the officer would almost certainly still be alive if Quintero hadn't entered the country illegally, his immigration status has nothing to do with whether he pulled the trigger.

The reference only reinforces the stereotype of the violent illegal immigrant.

Study after study has proved that stereotype wrong. Cities with concentrated immigration are some of the safest places around, according to a Chicago study published a few months ago by Robert J. Sampson, chairman of Harvard University's sociology department.

It found that first-generation immigrants were 45 percent less likely to commit violence than third-generation Americans.

And what of the cultural fears, that illegal immigrants refuse to learn English and are doomed to dwell in poverty?

According to years of data from Latino immigrants interviewed in the Houston Area Survey, Latino immigrants are learning English and assimilating as fast as immigrant groups in the past.

The proportion of Latinos who conducted interviews in English rather than Spanish grows from 17 percent among recent immigrants to 49 percent for those who have been here at least 20 years, to 98 percent of the third generation.

They're also moving up and out of poverty. The percent of households with incomes above $35,000 grows from 16 percent among the most recent immigrants, to 42 percent among immigrants who have lived here more than 19 years. By the third generation, the number is 57 percent.

Perceptions aren't always reality.

Immigration isn't all bad, or all good. Immigrants themselves are a drain and a boon, but seemingly more of a boon in Houston.

Focusing only on the negative perpetuates a climate in which illegal immigrants are demonized for breaking immigration law in a broken immigration system, rendering the topic too politically toxic for congressional leaders to touch.

Acknowledging the complexities of the issue is the only hope for a solution.

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com

And while it's clear that the officer would almost certainly still be alive if Quintero hadn't entered the country illegally, his immigration status has nothing to do with whether he pulled the trigger.

Huh ?

Originally Posted by NoBueno

And while it's clear that the officer would almost certainly still be alive if Quintero hadn't entered the country illegally, his immigration status has nothing to do with whether he pulled the trigger.

Huh ?

She serves as a helpful idiot in support of ILLEGALS!

Originally Posted by lccat

Originally Posted by NoBueno

And while it's clear that the officer would almost certainly still be alive if Quintero hadn't entered the country illegally, his immigration status has nothing to do with whether he pulled the trigger.

Huh ?

She serves as a helpful idiot in support of ILLEGALS!

Yes. The rational these pro-illegal invaders use to support their positions should be disturbing to any American Citizen who reads this garbage.

It's outright alarming the flawed logic they will resort to in order to push their agenda!

To The Editor:

The reason so many Americans are screaming to the point of hysteria about illegal immigration is because of the fact we find ourselves having to argue what should be readily apparent to all. Articles like LISA FALKENBERG's twisting the facts about illegal immigration is a prime example.

You claim that illegal aliens pay more in sales and property taxes than the $1.15 billion you estimate they drain from schools and colleges. That sounds all warm and fuzzy until you consider the fact that you excluded all of the costs illegal aliens add to the prison systems, court systems, public health services, public welfare services, and transportation infrastructure that American taxpayers end up footing the bill for! The article engages in an omission lie to prove an indefensible point.

Then you try to defend illegal aliens as people that get sick, have babies, and commit crimes just like Americans while ignoring the fact that illegal aliens intentionally bypass the medical screenings required of legal immigrants and enter America from 3rd world poverty areas where infectious disease levels are many times higher than in the US. You forget the part about how most illegal aliens crossing the border illustrate a pattern of criminality, commit a series of crime, and pay thousands of dollars to cut a deal with the same murderous crime syndicates importing 90% of America's cocaine and meth! Have you also missed the fact that many illegal aliens are having babies to intentionally exploit our laws and that the birth rates among illegal aliens dwarf American averages?

The media is not fueling American concerns about illegal immigration. In fact, many of you are doing exactly what was shown here. You are using your position of trust as reporters to try and push a radical political agenda that calls for the continued non enforcement of and changing of America's popularly supported immigration laws.

Try getting a dose of reality in your articles and avoid ommission lie propoganda pieces like this in the future if you want to level the tone of the immigration debate.

William Gheen

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Originally Posted by lccat

Originally Posted by NoBueno

And while it's clear that the officer would almost certainly still be alive if Quintero hadn't entered the country illegally, his immigration status has nothing to do with whether he pulled the trigger.

Huh ?

She serves as a helpful idiot in support of ILLEGALS!

Yes. The rational these pro-illegal invaders use to support their positions should be disturbing to any American Citizen who reads this garbage.

It's outright alarming the flawed logic they will resort to in order to push their agenda!

The fact that Houston is a sanctuary city allows for this circumstance to exist. Our elected officials "wink" off ILLEGALS as not being criminals and the ILLEGALS feel they are welcomed. Of course they are by our Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors. ILLEGALS believe they can do NO wrong and that is supported by the assistance they receive from the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS(Big in this murder case), Chamber of Commence, Big Labor, Elitist Contributors, their Elitist Politicians, and of course the Houston Newspaper.

Study after study has proved that stereotype wrong. Cities with concentrated immigration are some of the safest places around, according to a Chicago study published a few months ago by Robert J. Sampson, chairman of Harvard University's sociology department.

"Cities" with concentrated immigration are some of the safest places around"..........was Los Angeles and Chicago included in the study? They are safest for the lawless with their sanctuary status.

So explain to me why Chicago had 32 shooting and 2 stabbing during a recent week-end with 20 of the shootings in a 12 hour period?
Why is one school's bus service under police guard if it's so safe?

[quote]Acknowledging the complexities of the issue is the only hope for a solution.


Yeah she needs to take her own advice and do some reasearch, besides her figures sound like it's coming right out of LA RAZA's mouth!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by MyAmerica

Study after study has proved that stereotype wrong. Cities with concentrated immigration are some of the safest places around, according to a Chicago study published a few months ago by Robert J. Sampson, chairman of Harvard University's sociology department.

"Cities" with concentrated immigration are some of the safest places around"..........was Los Angeles and Chicago included in the study? They are safest for the lawless with their sanctuary status.

So explain to me why Chicago had 32 shooting and 2 stabbing during a recent week-end with 20 of the shootings in a 12 hour period?
Why is one school's bus service under police guard if it's so safe?

LOOK, on this, here is what your missing, the study was published MONTHS BEFORE the killings that have happened in the last couple of months in Chicago and LA.. i bet today the report might be saying somehting different

470 COMMENTS on the chronicle websight on this editorial