Thread: Report on illegals inconclusive

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Report on illegals inconclusive
By ELISA A. GLUSHEFSKI
eglushefski@manassasjm.com
Tuesday, January 23, 2007


The results of a Prince William County government report on illegal immigrants revealed what was already known - that it is nearly impossible to pin down the number of illegal immigrants living in the county and even more difficult to calculate their cost to taxpayers.

Because of dated statistics, and state and federal laws that restrict certain agencies' abilities to deny service to non-citizens, the report was largely inconclusive.

Released on Monday afternoon, the report states that illegal immigrants cost the county at least $3 million - a cost that is "outweighed by the economic benefit and money that this segment of the population brings into the county."

Most recent U.S. Census statistics are from 2000 and show there were 14,000 illegal immigrants living in the county.

Without having a valid number of illegal immigrants currently living here, county staff was unable to give an "accurate or dependable answer" to the illegal population's cost to the county, according to the report.

"There has been other organizations that have worked for years to determine the cost and benefits of illegal immigrants and they've had little success," said Nikki Brown, a county spokeswoman. "I think that's pretty telling."

The study shows that services provided by Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps and federal housing programs are restricted to U.S. citizens, while the public school system, services funded through the Health Department and child protective services do not have the same regulations.

And of the multiple agencies that provide human services, the study group was able to retrieve calculable information from two, providing only a partial answer there.

Illegal immigrants cost the Adult and Juvenile Detention centers a little less than $2.9 million and a little more than $71,142, respectively, said Melissa Peacor, assistant county executive. The county receives a $251,000 refund from the federal government to help offset those costs.

The only other service the study group was able to account for was emergency Medicaid applications.

And with a reported 850 illegal immigrants having applied for emergency Medicaid between January and November 2006, the cost to the county was $44,103, bringing the total cost to nearly $3 million, the report states.

An $18 million deficit facing the county impelled Supervisor W.S. "Wally" Covington III, R-Brentsville, to ask County Executive Craig Gerhart a little more than a month ago to figure out how much illegal immigrants cost the county.

"Seems to me to be patently unfair to have local taxpayers here legally picking up the tab," Covington said in a telephone interview Monday evening.

Covington particularly wanted to find out what illegal immigrants and their children are costing the school system, which is constitutionally prohibited from denying admission to a student on the basis of legal status.

Covington said he's in the process of drafting a letter that he hopes the Prince William Board of County Supervisors will back.

The letter will request that Congress enact a study on the impact illegal immigrants have on local government and will ask for a reimbursement of the "attached invoice."

The cost to the county was "probably less five years ago," he said. "But where is it going to be in another five."

Right, Good luck with that one, do they really think our government wants to know the cost of illegals on the tax payers in this country.they don't want to know, and deffinitly do not want us to know (civil war would break out).

Before any bill other than enforcement is done, the American people deserve to know how many illegals are in the country and the true cost of them. We cannot grant amnesty to an unknown number of people.

Before the country can know the true cost, it must first admit to the true numbers! Personally, I don't know what those numbers are, but they certainly exceed the 12 million number we keep hearing from governmental officials!