Burden on budget
Illegal migrants costly to S.B. County
Staff writer Stephan Wall, and by association, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin have chosen to heap blame for the San Bernardino County fiscal problems on those who have no voice to protest; illegal immigrants.
The inflammatory and bigoted front page headline and subsequent front page paragraphs of the Sunday Daily Bulletin, state that the esteemed San Bernardino County Grand Jury of 2005-2006 determined that $38 million was spent on services to illegal immigrants. An alarming amount of money no doubt, until you compare it to the overall county budget of over $4 billion. But you have to turn to page A7 to see that this $38 million figure isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Take for example the $9 million attributed to the District Attorney's Office for prosecution of illegal immigrants. District Attorney's Office spokesman Susan Mickey is quoted as saying, "no one here has any idea where that ($9 million) figure came from. We don't track cases by immigration status." Subtract $9 million.
Or how about the $9 million attributed to health care costs at the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. According to the hospital spokesman Frank Arambula as much as 25% of their costs for services to illegal immigrants is reimbursed by Medicare. So scratch $2.25 million.
Another $9 million is attributed to the Public Defenders Office. County spokesman David Wert confirmed in the article that the $9 million figure was only an estimate, as the county doesn't actually track the costs for the Public Defenders Office. No confirmation - subtract $9 million.
The 2005-2006 Grand Jury report (available on line)lists the cost to jail illegal immigrants as $11 million, not the inflated $15.8 million shown in the article. The other costs listed in the report are $773,000.00 for the Probation Department and $316,232.00 for the Children's Services Department. Children's Services reported that $142,549.00 of their costs were recovered.
So let's do the math. $38 million minus $9 million from the District Attorney's office, minus $9 million from the Public Defenders Office, minus $2.25 million from the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, minus $173,683 from Children's Services, and you have just under $18 million.
The term "boogieman" can be used metaphorically to denote a person or thing of which someone has an irrational fear. Lets not let Mr. Wall and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin make illegal immigrants out to be the boogieman here. The facts, as stated, don't justify it.
1 comment:
I'm not clear what point Fergie was trying to make. If all she was saying is that the article's numbers were not accurate, OK I agree that their numbers wrong, but so are the her'. That's true because NO ONE has good numbers about illegal aliens and their financial and social costs. Both the federal and state governments (and in many cases local governments) prohibits the collection of much information about illegal aliens, and they refuse to require the SAVE or E-Verify for all jobs and benefits so that cost data can be accurately collected. But for Fergie to suggest that Illegal aliens ARE NOT a huge burden at the federal, state and local levels is ludicrous. Neither governmental nor private organizations can make good decisions unless they collect detailed information about those elements of their operations that are important to its organization's success.
That begs the question of why governments at all three levels either prohibits or refuses to collect detailed information about illegal aliens. The answer is obvious! Those governments have already decided that they want to keep, for their client corporations/businesses, the cheap labor illegal aliens represent. They know the public already wants to be rid of the costs illegal aliens impose on them, and if the public knew the actual total costs they pay for illegal aliens, the demand for immediate and effective action to send them home would be overwhelming.
So yes Fergie, you can feel very safe that anytime you challenge as inaccurate information that portrays illegal aliens as the source of much of our financial problems you will be correct. I didn't notice anywhere in letter to the editor a demand for the governor and legislature to mandate the collection of detailed information on just how much illegal aliens cost us. I, like most Californians, would like to know if cheap labor for corporations/businesses is worth the cost to California taxpayers.
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