Posted on 01/15/2007 11:24:01 AM PST by A. Pole
Pro-amnesty politicians know something they won’t tell us: illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime. The victims are American citizens - who are not only victims of murder, rape, child molestation and traffic accidents at the hands of illegals – but who are forced to pay mightily for the privilege. Read this 16th installment of the FSM series on the horrors of illegal immigration to learn the stupefying facts of how much this is costing each and every one of us. You will revolt!
As detailed in Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of Charts the bottom line is that illegal immigration brings in a tremendous number of poor and uneducated people along with all their inherent problems. As noted in the KGTV report, Illegal Immigration Could Cost Taxpayers Trillions, “The influx of illegal immigrants has effectively "imported about 10 million high school dropouts into the United States," said Robert Rector, a senior research fellow in welfare and family issues for the Washington, D.C.-based think tank.”
While a smaller portion than most countries, the US has our own resident poor and uneducated to take care of and as rich as the country is, we simply can not support all the poor and uneducated who want to come here.
One can understand why Mexicans, the largest component of illegal aliens, come to the U.S. In Mexico, they are typically paid only $5.00 per day for their labor. When wages for Mexican workers rise, the peso is conveniently devalued to keep Mexico competitive with foreign countries like China and India. The owners of Mexican businesses often keep their money in dollars in American banks and escape the devaluation of their currency. Between that and the thoroughly corrupt government, the common people are forever doomed to poverty. Without a revolution in Mexico, America is their only hope.
At this point it is worth noting that Mexico is not a resource-poor country. Mile for mile, it has natural resources that are among the richest in the world and it is a net exporter of oil. It is, however, a corrupt country which is why there are so many poor people wanting to flee to the USA. However, just being poor or wanting to come here is not a valid reason to violate the national sovereignty of the United States. If so, most of the world would be here. While we already devote considerable resources to our resident poor, even the USA does not have the resources for all the world’s poor.
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle stated that Mexicans living in the U.S. send between $6 and $8 billion back to their families every year, making them the third-biggest legitimate force in the Mexican economy, after oil and tourism. Additionally, US taxpayers pay for all the direct and indirect costs of “housing” the Mexican illegal aliens. In essence, it’s an unofficial form of foreign aide. Mexico isn’t about to control its borders, since Mexicans fleeing their country for work in the U.S. send plenty of money back to their own country. However, as recently noted by the The Brownsville Herald in Banks seek stake in billions sent home, some estimates place the amount of dollars going south in 2006 will be $45 Billion, which was up from an estimated $30 Billion in 2004. Regardless of the amount, that money is leaving the US economy and not creating additional job opportunities here.
A 2004 study from the Center for Immigration Studies, The High Cost of Cheap Labor - Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, was one of the first to estimate the impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Based on Census Bureau data, the study estimates that households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government; costs at the state and local level are also likely to be significant. The study also finds that if illegal aliens were given amnesty, the fiscal deficit at the federal level would grow by nearly $29 billion. Note that number is the direct costs and does not count all the indirect costs of the collateral damage being inflicted.
At this point it is worth noting that Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post reported in Cost of Senate Immigration Bill Put at $126 Billion:
“The Senate's embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, as the government begins paying out federal benefits to millions of new legal workers and cracks down on the border, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis concludes.
Law enforcement measures alone would necessitate the hiring of nearly 31,000 federal workers in the next five years, while the building and maintenance of 870 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers would cost $3.3 billion. Newly legalized immigrants would claim nearly $50 billion in federal benefits such as the earned income and child tax credits, Medicaid, and Social Security.”
Amazingly, it seems that few people want to ask WHY we should be paying for illegal aliens to stay in the US. In any case, note that the projection is only the direct costs and, like most Government programs, probably vastly understates the ultimate costs. However, as this paper has noted, $3.3 billion for 870 miles of border security is probably a real bargain, even if we actually need 1,951 miles which would cost about $7-8 billion.
Steven Camarota notes in a Judicial Watch Special Report, New Fronts in the Immigration Battle:
“All the research suggests that the reason illegal aliens create large fiscal [deficits] for the country is not their legal status, but rather their educational attainment. Sixty percent of illegals are thought not to have even a high school education, another twenty percent, a high school education only. All the research suggests that people with relatively little education make relatively little money in the modern American economy…[As] a consequence, they tend to pay relatively little in taxes, even if they are legal and on the books. At the same time, [these individuals] tend to use a fair amount in public services, reflecting their lower incomes. I estimate illegals pay about $16 billion a year to the Federal Government in taxes…the difference between what they pay in taxes and use in services is about $10 billion. So right now the net drain on the Federal Government alone from illegal families is about $10 billion. If we began to legalize [these individuals] and they began to pay taxes and use services like legal immigrants with the same level of education, the net fiscal drain would roughly triple to nearly $30 billion.”
Have you heard about the Social Security Proposed Totalization agreement with Mexico? We didn’t either, before starting the investigation for this report. As reported by Bruce Barton in Totalization Sell-Out: What You Don't Know will Cost You:
“…the Commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration (Jo Anne Barnhart) and her Mexican counterpart concluded the U.S.-Mexican Totalization Agreement. This agreement had to be in place prior to the administration’s second term and its all-out offensive for Social Security reform. This agreement would allow illegal aliens working in the U.S. to qualify for Social Security benefits with as few as six coverage credits, as opposed to the 40 now required of American workers. Additionally, illegal workers could qualify for partial benefits after only 18 months (working illegally and with a false identity), while the American worker would still have to work 10 years in order to vest in the program. Lastly, families and dependents of illegal workers would be entitled to benefits as dependents and survivors, even if not residing in the U.S.
…The Social Security Administration’s estimate is that only about 50,000 Mexican workers (both legal and illegal) will enter the program in its first year at a cost of $78 million. This ignores the fact that presently there are an estimated 5 to 6 million undocumented Mexicans now in the American workforce. In 2004, the SSA did a study and determined that there were up to 800,000 mis-matched social security accounts, many of which were workers using non-work social security cards, or worse, using stolen social security numbers.
Meanwhile, estimates of the SSA are that by 2050 only 300,000 Mexican workers in the U.S. would be in the system at a cost projection of $650 million annually.
Among its negative findings, the GAO summarized its report this way:“Under the Social Security Act, all earnings from employment in the United States count towards earning social security benefits, regardless of the lawful presence of the worker, his or her citizenship status, or country of residence. Immigrants [both legal and otherwise] become entitled to benefits from unauthorized work if they can prove that the earnings and related contributions belong to them. However, they cannot collect such benefits unless [or until] they are either legally present in the United States [hence the Administration’s Guest Worker Program], or living in a country where SSA is authorized to pay them their benefits. [Hence an SSA office in Mexico City] Mexico is such a country.”
In the opinion of this writer, such a scheme almost dwarfs the irresponsibility of allowing unfettered illegal immigration.
As far as the author of this report has determined, there is no official calculation of all the direct and indirect costs of illegal aliens.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has a fairly recent article, The Estimated Cost of Illegal Immigration, where the number is put at $24.4 Billion. However, as noted, some experts say almost twice that much is being sent out of the country and just the education and traffic accident costs are about that much. The aforementioned KGTV report, Illegal Immigration Could Cost Taxpayers Trillions, notes: “The National Academy of Sciences estimated that each immigrant will result in a $100,000 net annual cost to taxpayers.” If that is the case then illegal immigrants are costing the country TRILLIONS of dollars, which is, of course, the point of the KGTV report.
In any case, when you add up all the direct and indirect costs it would not be surprising if the amount exceeded $100 billion, per year. If the data for the costs of crime are correct, the number could easily be over $300 billion, per year, on its way to the “TRILLIONS of dollars” of collateral damage costs.
Using the “lower” $300 billion figure and 300,000,000 million people in the US, that would be $1,000 per person. Only 136,000,000 file taxes, however, and of those about 44,000,000 pay no taxes leaving about 92,000,000 actual taxpayers. For them, illegal immigration could be costing each taxpayer about $3,260 each. That amount would buy a head of $8.93/head of lettuce every day of the year. So much for a “victimless crime.”
Regardless of the economic costs, how can you put a cost on the Americans who are killed, murdered, molested, and raped by illegal aliens?
C’mon America…this is YOUR problem and only YOU can clean it up. Your elected officials will not do this unless you tell them to. Go here to register your complaint. Your thoughts matter.
ping
“The National Academy of Sciences estimated that each immigrant will result in a $100,000 net annual cost to taxpayers.”
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Bookmarked.
BTTT
For later reading
nothing to see here, move along now...
Need to send the link to the article out to all I know.
Thank you.
This is the best compilation of sources for the costs of illegal immigration that I have seen.
Thanks for posting.
bfl
$24 billion sounds way too low. There have been countless estimates of the cost in California alone that have hovered around $10 billion a year.
The President and the rest of the open borders politicians DO NOT CARE about the expensive, nation-changing mess they are saddling us with, that is clear.
They all, including the President, lost all credibility by maintaining open borders in a time of "war", even after the terrorist attack of 9/11, and to continue pushing for amnesty for lawbreakers against the will of the American people.
We are not being represented. Taxation without representation lives in the form of the Bush administration and its cronies.
Janet, the illegals have representaion without taxation!
Regards.
"For them, illegal immigration could be costing each taxpayer about $3,260 each."
Maybe us actual taxpayers should declare that figure as a itemized deduction.
At our expense! They're laughing at the stupid gringos...
Seeing how there are probably 40 to 50 million and not the cozy little figure of 12 million that everyone conveniently bandies about....they are probably costing us a trillion per year. They have been coming in at least by 10 million a year for years that we have been using this cozy little number.
I hate to question the math when I agree that there is a huge problem but that number times only 10,000,000 illegals would be $1 trillion in annual costs.
My Grandmother knows Chuck Norris was an illegal because liberals and other idiots with cheap pre-911 excuses say so
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