Originally posted by JesusInFirstPlace:
I know that having a percentage of the population in the U.S. that does not pay taxes and works for so much cheaper does not help the economy. However, the cost of gas prices and milk is not entirely their fault. It's not even mostly their fault. The effect that they have on the U.S. economy, in the big picture, is very minimal.
Becca
The Estimated Cost of Illegal Immigration
Illegal alien workers may increase profits for employers, but they are costly to the American taxpayer. Most illegal aliens have low educational attainment, few skills, and they work for low wages, often in the underground economy where they pay no taxes on their earnings. Since about three million illegal aliens gained legal status in the amnesty of 1986, the flow of illegal immigration has increased, and today that population is estimated at 9-11 million illegal alien residents in the country. The former Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that the illegal alien population was increasing by about half a million aliens per year in 2000.
The Huddle Study
Because the number of illegal aliens can only be estimated, similarly the fiscal cost (government budget outlays) for those aliens can only be estimated. Dr. Donald Huddle, a Rice University economics professor, published a systematic analysis of those costs as of 1996 (see table below). The study also estimated the tax payments of those same aliens.
At that time, the illegal alien population was estimated to be about five million persons. The estimated fiscal cost of those illegal aliens to the federal, state and local governments was about $33 billion. This impact was partially offset by an estimated $12.6 billion in taxes paid to the federal, state and local governments, resulting in a net cost to the American taxpayer of about $20 billion every year. This estimate did not include indirect costs that result from unemployment payments to Americans who lost their jobs to illegal aliens willing to work for lower wages. Nor did it include lost tax collections from those American workers who became unemployed. The study estimated those indirect costs from illegal immigration at an additional $4.3 billion annually.
During the years since that estimate, the illegal alien population is estimated to have roughly doubled, so the estimated fiscal costs also will have at least doubled. Furthermore, the passage of time is accompanied by inflation in the costs of services, e.g., school budgets continue to climb. Therefore, what was estimated to be a cost to the American taxpayer of $33 billion in 1996 today would be at least $70 billion. Similarly, tax collections would have increased — sales taxes at least — so that the net expense to the taxpayer from illegal immigration would currently be at least $45 billion. The indirect fiscal costs would have also increased, especially during a period of already high unemployment, to perhaps and additional $10 billion annually.
1996 Costs Table from the Huddle Study 1
Programs
(billions)
Public Education K-12 $5.85
Public Higher Education $0.71
ESL and Bilingual Education $1.22
Food Stamps $0.85
AFDC $0.50
Housing $0.61
Social Security $3.61
Earned Income Tax Credit $0.68
Medicaid $3.12
Medicare A and B $0.58
Criminal Justice and Corrections $0.76
Local Government $5.00
Other Programs $9.25
Total Costs
$32.74
Less Taxes Paid
$12.59
Net Costs of Direct Services
$20.16
Displacement Costs
$4.28
All Net Costs
$24.44
Other More Recent Estimates
Other estimates have been done on components of the cost of illegal immigration. For example, FAIR estimated in 2003 that the cost of K-12 education for illegal alien children was at least $7.4 billion annually (see Breaking the Piggybank). This would be less that double the about $5.9 billion estimate above, but would be of the same order of magnitude. FAIR’s 2004 report on the medical expenses incurred because of illegal immigration (see The Sinking Lifeboat) shows uncompensated costs in excess of one billion dollars.
The cost of incarceration of illegal aliens in state prisons has also risen rapidly. In fiscal year ’02, the Department of Justice’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) distributed $550 million to the states to help defray their expenses, but this was estimated to cover only about one fifth of their outlays. Between FY'99 and FY'02, alien detention increased by 45 percent (from about 69,300 inmate years to over 100,300 inmate years), and that trend is continuing. These expenses do not include the costs of illegal aliens incarcerated in federal prisons, public safety expenditures, detention pending trial, expenses of trial proceedings, interpretation, public defenders, or the incarceration expenses of immigrants for minor offenses that do not meet the standards of the SCAPP reimbursement program. Therefore, it is clear that outlays for Criminal Justice and Corrections costs is today much greater than double the 1996 estimate.
While the cost of outlays for illegal aliens may be shifted by legislation among the levels of government and the private sector, the fact remains that illegal immigration creates an enormous fiscal burden on America and its citizens — a burden that Congress has levied upon us through short-sighted and haphazard immigration policy and succeeding administrations have aggravated by spotty enforcement of the law.
A Call for Action
Americans should demand that Congress and the administration work together to establish control over our borders and the interior of the country so that we have the assurance that aliens, whether immigrants or visitors, are legally present in the country. That objective is of vital importance for the sake of national security as well as for the impact on our tax bills.
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Educating Illegal Aliens Costs States $7.4 Billion a Year
States are spending $7.4 billion annually to educate illegal alien students-enough to buy a computer for every junior high school student nationwide, finds a startling new FAIR report.
In some states, the amount of money spent to educate illegal alien children accounts for a substantial portion of the state budget shortfall; in New Jersey, for instance, it accounts for 28 percent of the total state budget deficit.
Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red points out that with states straining under gaping budget shortfalls, public schools throughout the country are facing some of the most significant decreases in state education funding in decades. In some states, drastic cuts mean lay-offs for teachers, larger class sizes, fewer textbooks, and eliminating sports, language programs, and after-school activities. Nearly two-thirds of the states have cut back or proposed reductions in support for child care and early childhood programs. Some are even shortening the school week from five days to four.
"State budgets are funding illegal immigration at the expense of schools and their students," says FAIR's Dan Stein. "In a time of fiscal crisis, states cannot afford to bankroll the federal government's unwillingness to enforce immigration laws."
Providing K-12 Education to Illegal Immigrants: Costs to States
In California, the $2.2 billion spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could buy books, computers, and other instructional equipment for 346,689 classrooms, 79 percent of all the classrooms in California, and fully fund the state's free lunch program for poor students for almost two years.
In Texas, the $1 billion spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could provide health insurance to every child in Texas for three and a half years. State budget cuts are expected to trim tens of thousands from the Children's Health Insurance Program, and 22 percent of Texas's children already lack health insurance, the highest percentage in the nation.
In New York, the $756 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could put a computer on the desk of every high school student in the state.
In Illinois, the $484 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could eliminate the need to cut $38 million from the state's financial aid program by denying financial aid to 34,000 college students and grant aid to an additional 399,120 students.
In New Jersey, the $359 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could expand pre-school enrollment by 23,652 children, which would allow the state to achieve its court-mandated pre-school enrollment in poor school districts.
In Florida, the $309 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could eliminate the need to cut $120 million from K-12 schools, with $190 million to spare.
In Georgia, the $231 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could eliminate the need to cut $14 million from the state school budget and $35 million from the state university system, with $181 million to spare.
In North Carolina, the $196 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could cover the cost of textbooks for all schools in the state for two years.
In Arizona, the $187 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could eliminate the need to raise in-state tuition by $1,000 a year in the state university system, with $150 million to spare.
In Colorado, the $141 million spent educating illegal immigrants for one year could buy books, computers, and other instructional materials for every K-12 student in the state.
"This data provides yet one more illustration of the costs of turning a blind eye to illegal immigration and should provide further impetus for states to demand that the federal government finally take effective and decisive action to restore integrity to our nation's immigration laws," notes Stein.
For a copy of FAIR's report, call (202) 328-7004 or read it online.
* Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming were calculated together because the INS estimates their data as a group. In order to estimate their cost, the average expenditure per student was calculated.
You want to tell me that ilegals don't have an impact on our financial situation?
open your eyes, it is not a free ride brother
I wish it were then life would be easy for everyone, not just us white people, like you claim.
