Status questions ignored; counting cost comes 2nd
Schools, hospitals and other government services generally don't inquire about a person's citizenship status before issuing a locker or setting a broken leg.
"We don't ask. We treat people," said Wes Thompson, IHC vice president for community health partnerships. "We're not the INS. We don't want to be in that role."
Asking too many questions, he said, scares away patients who need medical attention. "We feel like it's a human right to get them health care," Thompson said.
Schools have the same attitude.
"We want to be seen as the nonthreatening people who educate children," said Greg Hudnall, Provo School District student services director.
Providing illegal immigrants access to public education, health care and other social services costs Utah money. There's no question about that. The question is: How much?
An accurate assessment of their perceived drain is elusive.
Those entities generally do not keep track of citizenship status. They say they don't know how many undocumented people they serve. Any attempt to attach a dollar figure to the undocumented immigrants they teach, patch up or provide family support would merely be a guess, something officials in those areas were not willing to do.
The federal government, in recent studies on health care and education, took dozens of pages to conclude it doesn't really know the costs.
Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. notes there is "enormous variability" in the reports that do exist. Little is specific to Utah.
Yet, taking education as an example, Huntsman said, "We talk about it like it's breaking the bank."
Utahns don't have a problem with undocumented children getting a free education.
Nearly two-thirds strongly or somewhat favor allowing them to attend public schools, according to a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll. Nearly 75 percent are OK with impoverished illegal immigrants receiving free school breakfast and lunch. And another 60 percent say students who attend at least three years and graduate from a Utah high school should be allowed to pay in-state tuition at the state's colleges and universities.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform says though massive budget deficits in U.S. schools can't be attributed to one source, the "enormous impact of large-scale illegal immigration cannot be ignored."
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