Here’s the Providence Journal headline:  “Numbers show RI undocumented immigrants a small slice of those getting benefits. What we know.”

Here’s one of the shocking facts that journalist Katherine Gregg did the work to uncover:

Medicaid payments on behalf of those without Social Security numbers totaled $55.4 million last year, including the $16,106,050 paid for those officially determined to be undocumented immigrants.

The article proceeds to dismiss entirely all but the $16 million and then to contextualize that number as a drop in the state’s Medicaid budget.

Now add to the total another $12 million for various welfare benefits from the state, and we get up to $28–67 million total.  In what other type of story would the reporter treat that amount of money as insignificant and the newspaper pass on an eye-catching headline… in an era when it needs all the attention for its work that it can get??