O.C. to Study Cost of Services to Immigrants

Venturing into a potential hornet’s nest, Orange County officials are planning a study aimed at measuring the cost of providing health and social services to both illegal and legal immigrants.

The study was requested by the city of Orange Chamber of Commerce and members of the Orange County Grand Jury. It grew out of a similar review in San Diego County, where a state study concluded in August that illegal immigrants took a huge toll on public resources. That report drew fire from immigrant rights groups and proved to be a political minefield for local officials.

Immigrants’ advocates predict a possible repeat in Orange County. And they say the conclusions of such a study could prove particularly painful today for immigrants as the county seeks a “scapegoat” for its economic woes.

“Minority members of the community will feel that they are being targeted as outsiders, and the message is that they should move on,” said UC Irvine anthropology professor Leo Chavez, a vocal critic of the methods used in the San Diego study. “What you’re doing is putting a little star on people’s heads and telling them that they are different.”

But County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said he planned to forward a request for the study to the Board of Supervisors by today and would move ahead with it unless the board directs otherwise. The idea appears to have gained support from most of the supervisors so far, officials said.

The immigration issue has become an emotional one countywide as communities try to absorb a constant influx of illegal aliens who compete for jobs, housing and public services. In the city of Orange, in particular, local officials have battled to rid their streets of undocumented dayworkers who have congregated looking for jobs.

While the format is still undecided, several officials said the price tag to the county for a full-scale review could run into six figures, perhaps totaling as much as several hundred thousand dollars. No timetable has been set. But Schneider said he is recommending that the county undertake a more limited study, applying existing data from San Diego and Los Angeles to Orange County. That would likely cost less than $5,000 in staff time, he said.

Officials with the Orange Chamber of Commerce said their request is an attempt to force the federal government to recognize the burdens placed on local governments by the huge influx of undocumented immigrants.

Immigrants “are competing here locally for limited services, and the federal government is not picking up the tab for that,” said Brent Hunter, executive director of the chamber.

“We realize it’s a very sensitive issue, but changes are going to continue in the ethnic makeup of our community. We need to get a handle on those changes and on what sorts of impacts they will have on our resources,” Hunter said.

Local officials say such assessments have been stymied by poor data on the number of illegal immigrants living in the county.

In a letter to county officials, the chamber asked the county to study the public expense of providing a range of services, including “yearly births in county facilities by illegal alien mothers,” welfare payments to legal immigrants, and health care and legal costs for illegal and legal immigrants.

The chamber also wants the county to identify and give statistics on “communicable disease cases documented for illegal aliens/legal immigrants.”

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said she thinks that the idea of studying the financial impact of legal immigrants is “crazy,” but as for the chamber’s requests on illegal immigrants, she added: “That’s important information. I don’t see why we won’t go ahead with it.”

The Orange chamber’s letter does not ask for any study of contributions made to the local economy by legal or illegal immigrants.

The tensions in Orange reached a high point last September when federal agents picked up nearly 200 illegal immigrants in a controversial raid. Latino activists accused federal agents of using “storm trooper tactics,” threatening residents, kicking in doors, and breaking windows. But the U.S. Border Patrol later concluded that there had been no wrongdoing.

In addition to the Orange chamber’s request, a subcommittee of the Orange County Grand Jury has also asked for statistics on the cost of educational and social services for illegal immigrants, sources said.

Along with investigating criminal matters, the grand jury routinely issues reports on a range of public policy issues. The purpose of the grand jury’s inquiry into the immigrants issue was not known, and foreman Vincent C. Cauley said he was unaware of the request and could not comment on it.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who has drawn the ire of local rights groups for statements on immigration issues, lauded the county’s planned study.

“It is absolutely vital that we get a handle on the magnitude of the problem. . . . Officials are bending over backward to minimize the problem,” Rohrabacher said.

“My common sense tells me that that we’ve got a huge percentage of social services and education and criminal justice money that’s being spent on people who actually are here illegally and shouldn’t be in the country to begin with,” he said. “If we want to stem the flow of aliens, we’re just going to have to say that anyone here illegally is not going to get any government services.”

But critics say that “political agendas” can slant the numbers.

John Palacio, director of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said that while he supports the concept of immigrant studies, the data can be distorted to make the results “a vehicle” for attacking minorities.

“Orange County has a reputation of trying to make immigrants a scapegoat for the ills of its lack of leadership and fiscal management, and whenever there are bad economic times, we want to blame someone else,” he said.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton could not be reached for comment Thursday on the study, and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez--who first forwarded the chamber’s request to Schneider for review in August--declined to discuss the issue.

But an aide to Supervisor Don R. Roth said he was supportive of the study. And Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said in an interview that he thought the study was an “appropriate” way to establish the county’s real costs of illegal immigrants.