Commission approves disaster request
Government: County votes 2-0 to ask for state's
help with illegal immigrants
By Mike Butts
Idaho Press-Tribune
CALDWELL - In a 2-0 vote Tuesday, Canyon County commissioners passed a resolution to declare the county a disaster area because of illegal immigration.
Commissioner Robert Vasquez authored the resolution because he said an influx of illegal immigrants poses a serious enough threat to its residents to be considered an emergency. He cites money spent on indigent medical care and incarceration of illegal immigrants as reasons for the resolution.
The matter rests in Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's hands now.
"It's time to take a stand and bring the governor into this," Vasquez said.
"Commissioner David Ferdinand and I did not take this action lightly, and it is in the best interest of the county to prepare before a contingency occurs, rather than simply react as governments have been doing for years," Vasquez announced in a press release after the vote. "Also, we encourage other counties in Idaho to review their circumstance, and if applicable, issue a declaration of their own."
Vasquez and Commissioner David Ferdinand voted for the resolution. Commission Chairman Matt Beebe expressed support for the resolution's concerns but abstained from voting on it.
"My concern is whether or not this truly meets the definition of an emergency or a disaster under the law," Beebe said in the open meeting at the Canyon County Courthouse. "I don't dispute the concern."
Vasquez spoke of county detention officers being exposed to tuberculoses and an outbreak of syphilis in Canyon County this year. He linked the spread of those diseases to illegal immigration. He also said hundreds of illegal immigrants are incarcerated in the county's jail and that illegal immigrants are responsible for much of the county's crime.
Vasquez also cited a 20 percent increase over 5 years of illegal immigrants making applications for county welfare.
Both Vasquez and Ferdinand said part of the problem is that many immigrants come to the United States with no interest in becoming assimilated citizens.
"I think the most imminent danger we really have is that people who come to this country today really don't want to be Americans," Ferdinand said. "They want to take advantage (of services we have)."
Six concerned citizens attended the open meeting. James Oates, a 75-year-old retired Simplot worker from Caldwell, said he agrees with the resolution.
"Migrant workers are necessary and needed in Idaho's economy," Oates said. "But I think (immigration) ought to be regulated and controlled, and that means controlling the borders."
Nampa social worker Faye Spencer, 56, disagreed with the commission's action. She said illegal immigrants make contributions as tax payers, workers and consumers. And she called Vasquez's characterization of illegal immigration as an unarmed invasion of the United States "ludicrous."
"I think it makes Idaho and Canyon County look silly," she said. "It's an embarrassment."
Nampa homemaker Ronalee Linsenmann said she agreed with the resolution.
"With the highway issue we say we need to get ahead of the problem," she said, "and I see this as the same principle."
Vasquez asked his fellow commissioners last week to consider the request in response to the publication of a Mexican government, comic book-style guide that provides safety advice for illegal immigrants planning to cross into the United States.
He said the guide, titled "Guide For The Mexican Migrant," has set the stage for "an imminent invasion of illegal aliens" into the United States and Idaho. Vasquez has a history of raising concerns about the cost of illegal immigration. Last year, he tried to bill the government of Mexico $2 million for money he said it cost the county to deal with illegal immigrants. That action included demands for the payment of about $1.4 million for expenses related to the incarceration of Mexican nationals held in the Canyon County jail and $575,000 for medical services provided by the county to Mexican citizens who entered the country illegally.
In response to Tuesday's resolution, Roberto Olvera, 22, a program specialist with the Idaho Migrant Council, said he has stopped paying attention to Vasquez.
"I try not to read anything Robert Vasquez writes anymore," Olvera said. "When I think of political leaders, I think of people who are trying to unite us and not divide us."
In a statement issued Tuesday, Vasquez said the resolution is meant to serve notice to Idaho's U.S. Senate and Congressional delegation.
"We county commissioners expect them to provide solutions to this issue," Vasquez said in the statement. "And if they refuse to face the facts, then let them provide the funding that Idaho counties will need to address the issue."
Kempthorne spokesman Mike Journee said the governor's office could not comment on the resolution because it had not seen it. He did say it was unusual for a county to request disaster designation for anything other than a natural disaster.
Illegals by the numbers
From January 2002 to October 2004, the Canyon County Detention Center completed 8,100 bookings. Of those, 1376, or 17 percent, claimed non-US citizenship.
Prison costs
n Idaho counties must provide shelter, food, and medical care for prisoners, regardless of citizenship. Providing required care for illegal immigrants places an additional burden on the property tax payers of Canyon County and the burden increases each year.
Crime costs
Of 8,100 bookings into the Canyon County Detention Center between January 2002 and October 2004, 1,376, or 17 percent, claimed non-U.S. citizenship.
Of the 1,376:
n 181 were held for U.S. Marshals
n 241 were arrested for traffic violations
n 954 were arrested on charges that included traffic violations
n 151 were arrested on felony violations.
Of the same 1,376 arrested:
n 385 were placed on a "247" hold indicating that, depending on the nature of their crime, they may or may not be deported
n 35 were placed on a "203" hold indicating they would be deported.
Two high profile cases involved illegal immigrants: Angie Leon murder in which the estranged husband convicted of murdering his wife was a Mexican national; the freeway crash that killed two members of the Marti family which was caused by an intoxicated Mexican national driving the wrong way; and just recently, the arrest of the drug trafficking ring in which at least 4 of the 16 people arrested were illegal immigrants.
Medical costs
n The county must pay medically indigent county residents, regardless of citizenship. Since 1999, the Canyon County Indigency Program and the State CAT program have paid more than $1.5 million for medical expenses of illegal immigrants.
n In the past two years, detention center staff was exposed at least twice to illegal immigrants who tested positive for tuberculosis. Cost to county: Precautionary testing for the staff.
n In August, the jail was holding an illegal immigrant who tested positive for tuberculosis, and was diagnosed as active and infectious. Cost to county: Southwest District Health Department declared a quarantine, moved that individual into a motel, provided home health nurses, food stamps in the form of an electronic card, and medical treatments.
n Compiled by the Canyon County commissioners
http://www.idahopress.com/articles/2005/01/27/archives/011905-news-commision.txt
.there goes the salmon.. 
