What our porous border costs you
Feds loath to repay front-line states
GARRY DUFFY
Tucson Citizen
January 27, 2006
www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/border_news/012706a1_immigrantcosts2
One cost of illegal immigration is showing up in your house payment or property tax bill - about $30 a year for the owner of a typical home.

Autopsies for illegal immigrants, extra jail room for those who commit crimes and other border-related expenses have put the county's six-year tab for border-related spending at $62.5 million.

"This amount equals 153 fully equipped sheriff's deputies that Pima County had to forgo during that period," County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said recently. During that period, the county's force of deputies was well below the per-person average of comparable jurisdictions, he said.

But while covering essential border-related services is stretching the county thin, federal reimbursement for costs related to inadequate border security amounts to pennies on the dollar, local officials say.

The largest share of such costs is borne by the Sheriff's Department, including the Pima County Jail. The county expects to spend $2.9 million to feed and clothe illegal immigrants at the jail and $4.6 million to cover extra deputies and administrators.

Though protecting the border is generally regarded as the federal government's responsibility, its wallet is virtually slammed shut when it comes to reimbursing communities for costs incurred because the border is not secure.

That means local tax bills are higher and county services are stretched thin.

Calculations such as the county's do not address the economic contributions of illegal immigrants, many of whom are picking crops or building houses for less money than American citizens would and paying money into Social Security they will never collect.

But the county's costs also do not include those incurred by other institutions, such as school districts and incorporated cities. Making a case for reimbursement will be critical to any agency seeking to shift some of the burden back to the federal government.

Stingy feds

Huckelberry last year had county department heads and elected officers, such as the sheriff, go back through records and calculate the approximate costs in services and work hours stemming from illegal immigration. The bottom line: Federal stinginess costs us money and saps services and programs essential to the quality of life here.

"The costs exist for us," Huckelberry said last week. "We should get some help with this."

Of the $62.5 million in costs identified by county bookkeepers, combined federal and state assistance has amounted to just over 5.4 percent of the total costs to the county, Huckelberry said.

Pleas for federal help fall mostly on deaf ears, a condition that appears to become more prevalent in proportion to the distance members of Congress live from the border.

"The reimbursement is insufficient; we all know that," U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said this week.

"It's about one-fifth to one-tenth on the return," Grijalva said.

The two-term congressman said he is working with other members of Congress on a measure that would substantially increase federal reimbursements to local jurisdictions. It is unlikely to pass, he said.

Especially because the border area is losing its most powerful congressional advocate with the retirement of longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., at the end of the year.

"That is going to be a big voice to lose," said Martin Willett, deputy county administrator.

Willett doubles as the county's policy point man with the Legislature, where the county also is applying pressure for additional reimbursement for services rendered to illegal immigrants.

Gov. Janet Napolitano last year set aside $1.5 million in state funds for distribution to the four border counties. Pima County's share was about $415,000, most of which went to the Sheriff's Department.

The governor has pledged an additional $100 million in state funds this year for border security, most of which would go to the four border counties.

Specifics are lacking.

"At this point, nobody knows how that is going to work," Willett said. "We don't know for sure what that means for Pima County."

Jail a big expense

Illegal immigrants arrested on suspicion of committing crimes here go through the local justice system and contribute to jail crowding.

Of the 1,814 inmates in the county's adult corrections system earlier this week, about 200 were illegal immigrants, sheriff's Lt. Mike Schlueter said.

"That's 200 more people that we've got to feed, clothe and provide medical care for," Schlueter said.

Being in the country illegally is treated as a civil, rather than a criminal, offense. The Sheriff's Department does not lock up people for being in the country illegally. Those apprehended who have not been arrested on suspicion of local criminal violations are turned over to federal officials for processing and repatriation.

Over six years, the costs of illegal immigrants to the criminal justice system exceed $50 million, Huckelberry's report states.

And every deputy busy with crimes committed by an illegal immigrant means one fewer deputy protecting residents.

"It becomes a stressor on the system," Willett said. "When we have to shift resources like that, how many more burglaries occur?"

Those charged with a crime in the county go through the usual criminal justice process - arraignment, jail, the courts and incarceration, if convicted.

The Pima County Attorney's Office spent almost $340,000 last fiscal year prosecuting cases involving illegal immigrants. Of that, almost $267,000 was spent on cases involving adults charged with felonies.

Defendants with no money are provided with taxpayer-paid attorneys. Last year, county Indigent Defense services for illegal immigrants totaled over $580,000 - with over $455,000 going for felony cases. A preliminary budget figure for the coming fiscal year of $771,000 for indigent defense for illegal immigrants indicates that county officials expect such prosecutions to continue to increase.

"It exacerbates our already strained caseload," said David Smutzer of the County Attorney's Office.

Smutzer said the office already is short "at least a dozen" full-time prosecutors for felony cases.

"I'd rather have that money to increase our staff size," Smutzer said.

County's health tab falling

Health care for illegal immigrants is another service that county taxpayers end up paying for. In six years, the cost has been about $11.8 million, with much of that for emergency care and hospitalization of people suffering from the effects of their trek here. That may include extreme dehydration from walking through the desert or injuries suffered when smugglers' vans packed with people blow a tire and roll over - a common occurrence.

The county's proximity to the border ensures that local hospitals care for far more such patients than hospitals far from the border.

"We have a disproportionate burden in providing health care to undocumented persons that people in Nebraska do not," Garrett Hancock, of the county's Institutional Health Division, said yesterday.

The county's costs for health care have declined in the past two years, since Kino Community Hospital was privatized and became University Physicians Hospital at Kino. Two years ago, the county's cost for illegal immigrant health care was over $3 million. For fiscal 2006-07, which starts July 1, Huckelberry is estimating that cost at $1.7 million.

100 bodies at morgue

Even the dead cost money.

The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office conducts autopsies on deceased illegal immigrants and stores the bodies until they can be turned over to the Mexican Consulate in Tucson for return home. Those services will cost more than $400,000 in the coming fiscal year, with taxpayers picking up about $140,000.

Business at the morgue from illegal immigrants is booming. Last year, the bodies of 158 suspected illegal immigrants were autopsied and stored there. For several years, the medical examiner has had to rent a refrigerated trailer at $1,000 a month to store bodies because permanent cadaver areas are above capacity.

Illegal border crossers who die in the desert often take a long time to identify. The county holds bodies of unidentified suspected illegal immigrants until they can be returned to relatives through the Mexican Consulate in Tucson. But not all bodies are identified.

"We still have over 100 border crossers still here," said Dr. Bruce Parks, Pima County's medical examiner. "We can't release a body without going through protocol."

Some bodies of suspected illegal immigrants have remained at the Medical Examiner's Office for over two years.

Parks has five forensic pathologists on staff.

"I've been, maybe naively, hopeful that the numbers would decline," Parks said.

Instead, he probably will need to hire another pathologist in the coming fiscal year to handle what he expects to be an increasing workload.

Grijalva said he and other representatives of border states will continue to try to educate lawmakers with constituencies far from the border.

Discussions about reimbursing local governments are often lost amid proposed remedies that don't address the problem.

"There is still a lot of posturing about fences, troops at the border, things like that," Grijalva said. "But we're not dealing with the costs to the local communities."

Pima County Net Costs Related to Illegal Immigrants
(table didn't come out well, click on link to see table)

Department
FY 00/01
FY 01/02
FY 02/03
FY 03/04
FY 04/05
FY 05/06 *
Total

Criminal Justice
$6.7M
$7.3M
$7.6M
$8.6M
$9.6M
$10.4M
$50.3 M

Health Services
$1.6M
$1.8M
$2M
$3.1M
$1.7M
$1.7M
$11.9M

Environmental Services
$16,260
$18,702
$28,795
$40,969
$82,311
$86,705
$273,742

Proposition 200**
0
0
0
0
$2,746
$87,104
$89,850

Total
$8.3M
$9.2M
$9.5M
$11.7M
$11.4M
$12.3M
$62.5M

* budgeted ** Proposition 200, passed by voters in 2004, requires the county to get proof of citizenship for some services
Source: Pima County

Have you any idea of what illegals pay back to the government from No Insurance tickets?

 No really, leave the poor imigrants alone. Their just trying to make a better life for themselves and you'd do the same thing if you were in their situation.

Quoted: Have you any idea of what illegals pay back to the government from No Insurance tickets?  No really, leave the poor imigrants alone. Their just trying to make a better life for themselves and you'd do the same thing if you were in their situation.

If you're serious, you're a fucking idiot. I won't waste anymore time typing the facts incase you happen to be kidding. If you're not, let me know because I can go after you with so many facts that disprove your "better life" theory.

If you are kidding, and you certainly should be, throw a smiley icon in your post next time.

Quoted: Quoted: Have you any idea of what illegals pay back to the government from No Insurance tickets?  No really, leave the poor imigrants alone. Their just trying to make a better life for themselves and you'd do the same thing if you were in their situation. If you're serious, you're a fucking idiot. I won't waste anymore time typing the facts incase you happen to be kidding. If you're not, let me know because I can go after you with so many facts that disprove your "better life" theory. If you are kidding, and you certainly should be, throw a smiley icon in your post next time.

I don't think he is kidding.............another "enlightened one" checks in

So you're honestly saying you would be perfectly content to sit in your shit hole hut , wondering where and when you'll get your next meal when you could be somewhere else making 7 bucks an hour (which is a lot of money down there) and have a shot for something better?
 I didn't say lets throw open the gates, toss rose petals and give them hugs when they cross the border. I said I understand why the do it.
 And I thought we fought a war to get rid of all the Nazis already... hainsawkill.gif

Quoted: So you're honestly saying you would be perfectly content to sit in your shit hole hut , wondering where and when you'll get your next meal when you could be somewhere else making 7 bucks an hour (which is a lot of money down there) and have a shot for something better?  I didn't say lets throw open the gates, toss rose petals and give them hugs when they cross the border. I said I understand why the do it.  And I thought we fought a war to get rid of all the Nazis already...

Wrong, you said that we should let them alone because they want to come here

No really, leave the poor imigrants alone. Their just trying to make a better life for themselves and you'd do the same thing if you were in their situation.

I would do the same thing, and it would still be the US governments job to stop me from doing it
YOU do understand the meaning of illegal, right?
They are ALSO engaging in forced prostitution of CHILDREN
In addition to all the other crimes they commit, that should be reason enough to want them gone........

Quoted: So you're honestly saying you would be perfectly content to sit in your shit hole hut , wondering where and when you'll get your next meal when you could be somewhere else making 7 bucks an hour (which is a lot of money down there) and have a shot for something better?  I didn't say lets throw open the gates, toss rose petals and give them hugs when they cross the border. I said I understand why the do it.  And I thought we fought a war to get rid of all the Nazis already...

Well you know what, maybe if those filthy illegal aliens were simply JUST working hard to live, I still wouldn't like it, but I'd be a lot more sympathetic to their cause. Unfortunately, it's not anywhere near that simple.

First of all, in the state of AZ for instance and many other states including your own, violent  crimes such as murder, home invasions and kidnapping and non-violent crimes such as car theft and drug dealing have risen sharply do to the invasion of illegal aliens. The proof is there if you want to see it, it's them doing it! What about the numerous accidents they cause? They're uninsured to boot, yeah that great! Someone is paying that, and yeah you guessed it, it's me and you.

Now lets talk about some other costly things besides the crimes themselves, do you think it's cheap to jail these pieces of shit? I can assure you it isn't. And welfare fraud, what about that? How about the unpaid medical costs that illegal aliens seem to keep sticking the tax payer with?

How do you feel about illegal aliens driving down wages in many fields such as construction? Do you think that's cool? If so why? Do you want an unskilled piece of shit building your next $300k home so that the builder makes bigger profits? I don't.

Let's talk about education for a minute, don't you realize that illegal aliens children are a burdern on our already taxed education system? If so, what's the answer, for U.S. citizens to pay higher taxes? If you say yes, you must not be old enough to really value money yet.

I won't even go into all the other "less impacting" problems those roaches create and their extremely rude filthy third world behavior.


So let me ask you this one final question. You say they "want a better life". What does that really mean? Where do you draw the line? Does a better life mean they are entitled to whatever I have? Whatever you have? Or something better than what they already have? Ask someone from Ethiopia if they think Mexicans from Mexico have it bad? I bet THEY say no. See, it's all relative really, what is a better life? I wouldn't mind having more money myself, can I just take what I want? If not, why? I just want a better life.

And one last thing, why should legal U.S. citzens have to pay "the price" for illegal aliens wanting a "better life"? In fact. why6 should any given person have to pay the price for some other persons wanting of a better life?


Oh yeah, and your Nazi anology, that's assinne. The two have absolutely nothing whatsoever in common. Beside blurting out "Nazi" like liberals do the try and end arguments, why don't you explain the connection between our feelings towards an uncontrolled invasion and Nazi era Germany/ Can you do that? I think you can't.

Quoted: Quoted: So you're honestly saying you would be perfectly content to sit in your shit hole hut , wondering where and when you'll get your next meal when you could be somewhere else making 7 bucks an hour (which is a lot of money down there) and have a shot for something better?  I didn't say lets throw open the gates, toss rose petals and give them hugs when they cross the border. I said I understand why the do it.  And I thought we fought a war to get rid of all the Nazis already... hainsawkill.gif Wrong, you said that we should let them alone because they want to come here h=85%

No really, leave the poor imigrants alone. Their just trying to make a better life for themselves and you'd do the same thing if you were in their situation.

I would do the same thing, and it would still be the US governments job to stop me from doing it
YOU do understand the meaning of illegal, right? hey
In addition to all the other crimes they commit, that should be reason enough to want them gone........

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