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Measuring Prince William's Illegal Alien Costs A Necessary and Courageous Task Potomac News Prince William County's recent action to study the fiscal cost of illegal immigration is courageous considering the inevitable firestorm of rhetoric it will ignite upon the Broad. This comes on the heels of the County's bold decision to freeze approvals for new residential construction for one year, allowing itself time to regroup and provide relief from further sprawl. These two enough-is-enough initiatives show that public officials are actively weighing the costs versus the benefits of rapid growth and are receptive to constituent concerns about congestion, density and quality of life. The Board and the County Executive's office are sensibly questioning the level at which development and population outpaces the infrastructure it is designed to support. Prince William County now shares a distinction with Texas. Last month the Texas State Comptroller's Office released one of the first state commissioned studies on the cost of illegal immigration. Now, Prince William County appears to be one of the first counties in the nation to undertake a comprehensive cost analysis. As the phenomenon of large scale illegal immigration spreads across the country, overburdened governments now see this as a local issue. In the planning process of how to measure, and what to measure, Prince William County can learn a great deal, specifically what not to do, from the Texas study. If one believes Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, illegal aliens provide an annual net fiscal gain of $424 million. However, a recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) shows illegal aliens represent a net cost to Texas of $3.7 billion. With a variance as dramatic as that, Prince William County would be prudent to consider several methodology basics missing in the Texas study, that if not followed, could lead it to the same questionable design flaws and incorrect conclusions. Prince William should avoid the erroneous assumption that the output of goods and services produced by illegal aliens accurately measures the value they add to the local economy. This would be true only if we assume that the jobs now being done by illegal aliens would not otherwise be done by legal workers. If not for the availability and exploitation of cheap illegal labor, businesses would recruit legal residents to do the work at higher wages with little reduction of output. The cost to those businesses would be greater, but they would be offset by reductions in social costs. Nor should the County estimate the cost of public education only for students who are illegal aliens themselves. Siblings who are considered to be U.S citizens by virtue of having been born here are a direct consequence of illegal immigration. The final, but critical challenge, is measuring the outflow of earnings that are sent abroad, money that is not retained within the County which legal workers typically put back into the local economy. While the methodology FAIR utilized in its Texas analysis included all aspects that Prince William should include, it must be acknowledged that no early study will be perfect because the population being measured is illegal and hard to track. That said, Prince William County must accept this task as a fiduciary responsibility and proceed with the best information available. Local government imposed moratoriums on new development and scrutiny of illegal aliens costs are just two indicators that perpetual growth in finite spaces is impossible. Prince William Country officials should be commended for addressing this particular issue of illegal immigration costs, for asking the hard questions, and for their willingness to tackle a politically heated issue, even as they all face re-election next year. Doing so clearly shows they have not lost sight of their real constituents - the hardworking, tax-paying, law-abiding, legal residents of the Commonwealth. Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Dan Stein is president of the Federation for Immigration Reform in Washington. |
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