To take liberties with the catchy Las Vegas slogan, what happens there doesn't always stay there.
The gambling Mecca's business community has been jarred to learn that 60 to 80 percent of the once-booming construction industry's workers are illegal immigrants, and the sudden loss of jobs for thousands of them is hurting the economy.
As Nevada Assemblyman Moises Denis, D-Las Vegas, said, the state budget "didn't take into account the true impact immigrants have on the economy, so we underestimated how (the downturn in homebuilding) would affect our economy. Things are worse."
This tale of woe is emerging all over the West and Southwest, as illegal immigrants flee communities engaged in anti-immigrant dragnets or lose work in the sagging construction industry.
Only Texas of all the states has measured the impact of illegal immigrant labor. In a 2006 report by the state comptroller, undocumented immigrants were found to have contributed $17.7 billion to the state economy and $1.58 billion in state revenue through taxes, while using $1.16 billion in state services. A state spokesman said the report was an "eye opener ... that probably lowered some of the rhetoric against illegal aliens."
Until now, demagogues who've reduced the debate on illegal immigrants to clichés about crime and welfare costs have stifled immigration reform and demanded punitive measures.
However, brutal economy reality soon will force congress to work on serious reforms that recognize the need to allow millions of undocumented workers to remain in the domestic economy as a matter of necessity and not fear roundups and deportation.
