THE COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIANS

Federation for American Immigration Reform ^ | November 2004 | Editors

[Robert Drobot]

Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California's illegal immigrant population is costing the state's taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident.

This analysis looks specifically at the costs to the state for education, health care and incarceration resulting from illegal immigration. These three are the largest cost areas, and they are the same three areas analyzed in a 1994 study conducted by the Urban Institute, which provides a useful baseline for comparison ten years later. Other studies have been conducted in the interim, showing trends that support the conclusions of this report.

As this report will note, other significant costs associated with illegal immigration exist and should be taken into account by federal and state officials. But, even without accounting for all of the numerous areas in which costs associated with illegal immigration are being incurred by California taxpayers, the programs analyzed in this study indicate that the burden is substantial and that the costs are rapidly increasing.

The more than $10.1 billion in costs incurred by California taxpayers is composed of outlays in the following areas:

Education. Based on estimates of the illegal immigrant population in California and documented costs of K-12 schooling, Californians spend approximately $7.7 billion annually on education for illegal immigrant children and for their U.S.-born siblings. Nearly 15 percent of the K-12 public school students in California are children of illegal aliens.

Health care. Uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to the state's illegal alien population amount to about $1.4 billion a year.

Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California's prisons and jails amounts to about $1.4 billion a year (not including related law enforcement and judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes that led to their incarceration). State and local taxes paid by the unauthorized immigrant population go toward offsetting these costs, but they do not come near to matching the expenses. The total of such payments can generously be estimated at about $1.6 billion per year.

The fiscal costs of illegal immigration do not end with these three major cost areas. The total costs of illegal immigration to the state's taxpayers would be considerably higher if other cost areas such as special English instruction, school feeding programs, or welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal alien workers were added into the equation.

While the primary responsibility for combating illegal immigration rests with the federal government, there are many measures that state and local governments can take to combat the problem. Californians should not be expected to assume this already large and growing burden from illegal immigration simply because businesses or other special interests benefit from being able to employ lower cost workers. The state must adopt measures to systematically collect information on illegal alien use of taxpayer-funded services and on where they are employed. Policies could then be pursued to hold employers financially accountable.

The state could also enter into a cooperative agreement with the federal government for training local law enforcement personnel in immigration law so that illegal immigrants apprehended for criminal activities may be turned over to immigration authorities for removal from the country. Similarly, local officials who have adopted "sanctuary" measures that shield illegal aliens from being reported to the immigration authorities should be urged to repeal them.

November 2004

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The full report is available in HTML as well as pdf.

[television is just wrong]

I believe all congress people and senators that want these people here should take all these illegal aliens into their homes to live and raise them as their own families, without public assistance.

[B4Ranch]

Thank you. That seems to be a post I receive more and more often.

[Paperdoll]

Oh, yes, I almost forgot: Of course our guns will be consficated early on and then the muscle men move in to annilihate the dissenters and set themselves up in our homes with indentured illegals to serve them. UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING QUICK!!!

[GarySpFc]

When we rail against immigration it is extremely important to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. In respose to our cries the government focuses almost all of their resources against legal immigration and ignores the illegal problem. Make the distiction and hopefully they will get the message.

[drt1]

"Be careful who you hang with. It can be harmful to your FR health."

That WAS a very ominous statement wasn't it. When I read that I as astonished, enraged and saddened all at the same time. I would hope (Require?) this Forum has as it's objective the brisk and wide ranging debate of issues that lead to informed consensus. IMO This thinly veiled threat (Right out of Central Casting) warrants an apology.

'Harmful' to my FR health? That very statement is harmful the the health of freedom period.

[Howlin]

You're looking sillier with every post; people can see what I was replying to.

But carry on.....a dead horse is waiting on you.

[Paperdoll]

However, the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater,
no?

[Paperdoll]

(To B4Ranch in 19) >You are right<

And so are you, k2.

[Dane]

Just send the bills to Dane, sinkspur, Howlin, bayourod, bayoufraud, nopardons and that bunch. They love the illegals more than they do America, I believe.

Typical of you, telling lies.

Sorry if I believe the President's program to bring some sanity to a broken system is better than your neo-Kruhschev dream of a new Berlin Wall.

"Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall". President Ronald Reagan, Berlin 1987.

[B4Ranch]

>>I believe all congress people and senators that want these people here should take all these illegal aliens into their homes to live and raise them as their own families, without public assistance.<<

That's not how it works. They spend our money for their favorite ideas. Democrats showed the Republicans how and now we can't get either Party to go back to the good old days of fiscal conservancy.

How many trillion is the budget deficiency?

[B4Ranch]

>>Typical of you, telling lies.<<

Dane, I will never be able to take the title away from you.

For Pete's sake don't say, "Prove it"! No reason to be foolish.

Is the sun shining where you are today?

[Dane]

For Pete's sake don't say, "Prove it"! No reason to be foolish.

Nah, JMO, you proudly take the expert position of FR on foolishness.

[television is just wrong]

LOL, then I need to run for congress, I like spending money too.

[B4Ranch]

This quote has never been read by a whole bunch of FReepers. Maybe they need to read it ASAP.



"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149
May 7, 1918

[B4Ranch]

Yes, I do agree with you on that one. I read more foolishness in a day than the average person does, I suppose.

Some of it I even write for the enjoyment of others.

[William Terrell]

The only posts I recall reading as I scan a thread are ones of truculence and anger.

I support ANY plan that makes it better than it is now.

How about this plan. Using the authority given by existing laws, establish regional holding compounds served by two transport aircraft w/crews for each, and two distribution centers on the border served by 5 buses w/crews.

As a plane load accumulates, fly it to a border center. When a bus load accumulates, drive it into Mexico and release the detainees.

This will solve 80% of the problem, including the flood over the border, once the illegals get we are serious.

If Mexico protests, we can offer to turn their country into a ceramic bowl.

Oh, yes. With the wording of the 14th amendment, it would take simple legislation to prohibit children born of non-citizens on American soil from becoming citizens and anchor babies.

Play close attention to this quote. It is true. "Diseases desperate grown/By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all." There is no way you can credibly claim that the illegal immigration issue in this nation is not a "desperate growth".

[StoneColdGOP]

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David March. Killed in the line of duty, April 29th, 2002 by Armando Garcia, a convicted meth dealer who had twice been deported but kept coming back. Garcia is still at large, free in Mexico from American authorities.

[Howlin]

establish regional holding compounds

Detention centers all across the country?

Oh, yeah; there won't be a backlash against that, will there?

That will bring open borders faster than you can copy and paste that apple.

[international american]

Thank you!

[Dane]

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David March. Killed in the line of duty, April 29th, 2002 by Armando Garcia, a convicted meth dealer who had twice been deported but kept coming back. Garcia is still at large, free in Mexico from American authorities.

Huh and nothing about the white guy who shot a LA sheriff's officer in 2001 and then had a shoot out with LA County police and his house burned down. I can't remember his whole name, but he was considered by some as a "saint" on FR, and thus his nickname St. James.

OH BTW Stone, when are you going to turn ted bundy's name to, theodoro bundasmante.