Illegal immigrants are putting undue strain on economy

Ken Anderson, Las Vegas

Sunday, April 25, 2010 | 2:03 a.m.

Regarding David Adams’ Thursday letter to the editor, in which he explained how difficult and costly it would be to round up illegal immigrants. This is very true. But what if nothing is done?

Our government in Washington does not seem to think illegal immigration is its problem. After all, when the government does admit it has a problem, it just prints more money or borrows it from China. On the state and municipal levels, we do not have that luxury.

While I would never say that the presence of illegal immigrants is all bad, I believe we are at a point where the issue is causing serious problems. Let me focus on just one.

Not just in Nevada, but in the American Southwest, public school enrollments have dramatically increased because of families coming across the border. The tax base unfortunately is not increasing with this influx. We are reading every day that school systems are faced with funding shortages and are being forced to cut pay, let staff go, increase class sizes, cut programs, or maybe all of the above.

My point is that Washington is not being sensitive to a problem that is out of hand. I am sure that I am not the only one who sees more partisan politics going on and too little problem-solving. Do we need to send up a distress signal, SOS, save our state?