Horrors: Arizona immigration law costs $640,000 (but saves many millions) (Jacques Billeaud, AP, Paul Davenport)

One of the more ludicrous attempts by the Associated Press to enable illegal immigration is the article "Ariz. spends $640,000 on immigration training" by Jacques Billeaud ([1]). Even Homer Simpson wouldn't fall for it:

Police agencies in Arizona have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars training officers to enforce the state's 2010 immigration law, despite claims from supporters that it wasn't going to cost much extra for the state's 15,000 officers to carry out the statute.

An informal survey by The Associated Press of selected police departments and a state agency that trains officers shows that seven agencies have spent a combined $640,000 on training that focused heavily on the law's requirement that officers, while enforcing other laws, question people's immigration status if they're believed to be in the country illegally. Other agencies were surveyed, but said no training cost estimates were available...

...Lost in all the heated political rhetoric surrounding the law was the question about how much it would cost to carry out.

Buying insurance costs money too, but not buying it can cost much, much more. So, how much would it cost Arizona not to have laws designed to curb illegal immigration? Thankfully, a hint about that amount is in the seventh paragraph:

A week later, when told about training costs, (Jan Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson) said the amount being spent on the law would still pale in comparison to the estimated $934 million in net costs from illegal immigration that the state had to eat in 2011, the last year for which an estimate was available.

To be fair to illegal immigration supporters, let's divide that $934 million by 10. Heck, divide it by 10 another time. Which is larger? $9.34 million, or $640,000?

Jacques Billeaud isn't active on Twitter, but his colleague Paul Davenport is. Since Davenport has hyped the article [2], write him with your thoughts: @AZdavenport You can see me doing that here.

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[1] In the San Francisco Chronicle: peekURL.com/zKeeynS

[2] twitter . com/AZdavenport/status/262570985310539776