Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Illegal immigration costs us plenty

The Las Vegas Sun’s Wednesday editorial said it’s time for “comprehensive immigration reform.” What does that mean? In the past, it meant the government promised to close the borders to keep out those trying to enter illegally, to do a better job of making sure people didn’t overstay their visas, to tweak who would be allowed to immigrate, and to create a path to citizenship for everyone already here illegally.

The last time this was done, under President Ronald Reagan, 3 million to 5 million people became citizens, but it seems the rest of the package didn’t work so well. How do I know? Well, now there are 12 million to 20 million people here illegally.

No wonder the majority of the population, not just Republicans, want the border secured and better monitoring of visas before supporting any path to citizenship. You only get to fool me once.

The editorial also says that research shows that illegal immigration hasn’t led to billions of increased costs to government. Oh really?

Let me use just one example from our local economy. About a year ago it was reported that UMC was hemorrhaging money and the loss for this year is expected to exceed $70 million. That’s tax money that Clark County has to give to the hospital.

It was also reported that illegal aliens cost the kidney dialysis center $2 million per month. How much more is spent in other departments? I’m not suggesting the people shouldn’t get medical care, but if they weren’t here, the county would have more money for roads, parks, police, etc. Illegal immigrants do cost money. And there’s no evidence that granting them citizenship will change the economics.

This country was built by immigrants. Keep them coming. But immigration policy needs to be well thought out, not simply an open door for anyone who can make it across the border.

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