Nevada No. 3 in immigrant births

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

Nevada is among the top five states in the nation in the percentage of births to immigrant mothers, both legal and illegal, according to a study being released today.

The study, "Births to Immigrants in America, 1970 to 2002," said that nearly one out of three births in Nevada was to an immigrant mother, and that half of the births to immigrants in Nevada were to illegal immigrant mothers. Those numbers have increased dramatically in recent decades, mirroring a nationwide trend, the study said.

Nevada's numbers give it third-highest ranking nationwide in births to immigrant mothers, and make it fourth in births to illegal immigrant mothers, the study said.

The implications -- especially coupled with low levels of education for many of those mothers -- may be seen mostly in government programs, said Steven Camarota, author of the study for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group.

"The large number of births to immigrant mothers has enormous implications for social services ... (and) the stakes are enormous for Nevada," he said.

But other experts in the field of demographics and immigration said though the numbers in the study may be on target, its conclusions are one-sided or exaggerated.

Ben Wattenberg, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said "these studies tend to be overblown" and that the phenomenon of immigration -- including births to immigrants -- is cyclical and complex.

Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center -- and the source of some of the methodology Camarota used to estimate illegal immigrant mothers -- said he found the study's conclusions "a bit alarmist."

Passel's work includes an estimate of 150,000 illegal immigrants in Nevada.

The study's figures are for 2002 and previous decades going back to 1970 and are based on birth certificates and Census Bureau data.

Camarota also said the following about births to immigrant mothers:

Camarota says early on in his study that looking at immigrant births can make it easier "to better anticipate spending on services, especially public schools."

Aldo Aguirre, consultant for the Nevada Department of Education in the area of cultural diversity, said the Clark County School District makes continual efforts to deal with issues ranging from the lack of contact with formal education immigrant mothers have had before moving to Las Vegas, to the need for their children to learn English.

"It's very difficult to have a strong student if the mother has little academic background," he said.

The school district's most recent figures show that nearly 20 percent of about 280,000 students speak English as a second language. Bill Sampson, budget director for the school district, said $11.5 million is budgeted for the fiscal year that began July 1 to help those students learn English.

Aguirre said that investing in programs to integrate immigrant parents and teach their children English may be expensive, but it is good policy.

"The cost is either going to be paid in the front end or the back end -- if we don't educate them and their parents, we pay with higher dropout rates ... criminality, and other problems," he said.

Camarota said "the very large differences in educational level between immigrant mothers and others" could result in differences in achievement for their children, both in school and after.

But Wattenberg, of the American Enterprise Institute, said that second and third generation offspring of immigrants tend to achieve high levels of English literacy.

Passel said he has seen that "second generation Hispanics tend to do much better than their parents in educational achievement ... and reach higher economic attainment."

As for the births themselves, one person who sees the phenomenon described by Camarota up close is Carl E. Heard, chief medical officer for Nevada Health Centers, Inc.

His organization operates 23 sites statewide, including an obstetric clinic and four family practice clinics in the valley.

Locally, his staff has grown from one to four obstetricians in the last year, in part to handle the increasing number of births to immigrant -- particularly illegal immigrant -- mothers.

He said that about 75 percent of the 100 deliveries his staff oversees each month are to illegal immigrants, since that is the amount who apply for emergency Medicaid, the only source of financial help for low-income mothers who aren't legally in the country.

Charles Duarte, Medicaid administrator for the state, said that 1,200 Clark County births were paid for by emergency Medicaid from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003, the most recent period for which figures are available. He said the funds laid out for those births was unavailable, but that "it's big money."

Heard said that both legal and illegal immigrant mothers often don't have health insurance. Approximate hospital charges to emergency Medicaid for a normal delivery range from $5,000 to $12,000 and a physician's charges range from $1,200 to $1,800, he said. Medicaid typically pays less than that.

He also sees the issue as one of public health, and like Aguirre, said it is better to invest before than after a problem occurs.

Referring to the discussion surrounding immigration policy, Heard said, "let the political debate continue, but don't forget if you have decreasing investment in public health, you have decreasing indicators in quality of life."

Experts on all sides of the issue agreed that the growth in Nevada's immigrant population is due to one thing: jobs.

But Camarota cautioned: "It is not sufficient in the public discourse in Nevada to refer to immigrants as just workers. Their impact is long-term."

Passel, of the Pew Hispanic Center, prefers turning the idea of the costs immigrants may have on society on its head, and focusing on those who are hiring them.

"In addition to thinking about this phenomenon as a subsidy to immigrants, we might also want to think about it as a subsidy to employers."