Cost of illegal aliens in Va. soars

A new study from a nonprofit group that wants tighter border security and immigration controls finds the costs of providing certain services to those in Virginia illegally is about $625 per household.

That number represents the costs per household after deducting for money illegal workers give to the state by way of tax revenues, the Federation for American Immigration Reform states in its report, "The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Virginians."

On an annual basis, taxpayers in the commonwealth pay $1.7 billion per year to educate and provide medical care for illegal immigrants, as well as incarcerate those who break other laws, FAIR reports.

"These costs," wrote report author Jack Martin, director of special projects, "are especially burdensome at a time when the state is confronting a major general fund budget deficit of $1.1 billion."

In a telephone interview, Martin also referred to the indirect costs borne by residents that come in the form of remittances -- or, when the state's illegal immigrant working force sends money home to relatives outside America. The FAIR report includes an estimate from the Inter-American Development Bank that remittances from Virginia to Latin America in 2006 surpassed $1.1 billion.

"That really has a significant impact on the economy of a state," Martin said. "When large flows of money that are earned in the state are leaving the state … production and jobs are diminished in the state."

A hate group?

Perceptions of FAIR vary, and the group's background and mission have been called into question on more than one occasion -- even by Prince William County residents.

An email requesting comment sent to the operators of the blog AntiBVBL, a group with members who oppose the Prince William immigration resolution that allows for residency checks on those arrested and that partners with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement for extradition purposes, was not returned in time for deadline.

But on its site, members note that FAIR was "declared a hate group" in 2008 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala., nonprofit civil rights law firm.

At the same time, the nonprofit Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C., group that researches the backgrounds and sources of funding for other nonprofits and foundations, characterized the Southern Poverty Law Center in a 2006 report as an organization that "exaggerates the scope of racism in the United States to frighten donors into opening their wallets."

Martin said FAIR has already received some negative feedback on its report.

"There already has been a response from the opposition in which they have taken issue with the costs of illegal immigrant children who are born in their country," he said. "They say that you shouldn't track those costs because the children are legal. Our answer to that is the costs wouldn't have been generated if the parents hadn't been here illegally."

The bulk of the $1.7 billion reportedly goes toward schools. FAIR finds that Virginia tax dollars pay for the education of 95,000 children of illegal immigrants each year, for a total of $1.56 billion.

"Nearly 8 percent of the K-12 public school students in Virginia are children of illegal aliens," according to the report, "and nearly three-fourths of them are in Northern Virginia public schools."

The state pays for another $100 million each year for health care for illegal aliens, FAIR finds. And "the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in Virginia's state, county and independent city prisons amounts to more than $45 million a year," the report continues.

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Board of County Supervisors and one of the key proponents of Prince William's immigration resolution, said he hadn't yet read the FAIR report.

Supporting figures

But some local statistics collected after Prince William's policy went into effect support the study's findings regarding the extent of the costs of illegal immigration to the community, Stewart said.

"We received information that right after we initiated our crackdown, the number of births by women who were either uninsured or not covered by Medicaid had dropped by 500 births per year," he said. "That's significant because that's how the hospitals were able to identify who illegal immigrants were. If you're legal, you either have insurance or are covered by Medicaid."

Martin said the purpose of the report was to give local activists the tools they need to push for tighter immigration controls, and that one clear step Virginia could take to offset these costs would be to pass legislation requiring employers to verify the work documents of employees.

"That's similar to what Arizona and South Carolina have adopted," he said. "It would go a long way toward discouraging illegal immigrants from coming to this state and at the same time, encouraging those who are here working illegally to leave."

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.