... left out, left behind

Congress and the White House will need to solve the illegal immigrant problem eventually. But in the meantime there's much work that state and local governments must shoulder, particularly to keep young Hispanics from lives wasted in poverty or prison.

In North Carolina, Hispanic students drop out of school at rates higher than any other category. More than half of Hispanic girls are expected to be pregnant before they turn 20. A survey by UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Social Work, reported recently by The N&O, found that Hispanic youngsters often are scarred emotionally, live with uneducated parents in a culture that mandates education, and clearly get the message that they are not accepted in their new country, immigration status notwithstanding.

It's hardly surprising when demographics that dismal lead to bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, gangs and crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and other social ills. But to dismiss the harm, even when it involves someone who snuck across the border, suggests a lack of compassion that also is short-sighted. An incarcerated illegal immigrant costs taxpayers the same as a citizen. Teenage mothers are more apt to suffer complications during birth, with costs more likely to be paid from public funds when the mom is here illegally.

To some degree, crime, gangs and social upheaval have afflicted every nationality that has flooded into America. That history, in fact, offers hope, in the sense that ethnic minorities typically have adjusted to their new surroundings and flourished over time. That's one reason why the nation needs an encompassing approach to immigration reform. But until that legislation is passed, North Carolina can and should redouble its efforts to head off problems in the Hispanic community.

Triangle-area school districts, for instance, have fashioned programs to address dropouts, but more remains to be done. Anti-gang efforts need to be intensified, in concert with established Hispanic organizations. State and local health agencies' programs to discourage teen pregnancy could be adjusted to reach more Hispanic residents.

Certainly North Carolina cannot allow itself to stand by as vulnerable young people, far from home, are lost.