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.

[Howlin]

Why don't you ask the boss, instead of trying to pick a fight we us?

[Kozak]

Doesn't matter what it was referring to. It did not contain a personal attack, nor was it directed at you. So please refrain from lecturing on the accepted etiquette here on FR.

[Howlin]

I guess they get tired of talking to each other; since they all agree -- right down to the same phrases -- they need "new meat" to pound.

Of course, it doesn't help that they are the small majority, as usual, in current American thinking:

Ouch!

[B4Ranch]

Do you think I am being rude to you or calling you an impolite name?

I certainly apolopgize if I have previously or am now, but I don't see it. I did flunk the Mensa exam so please explain in a bit more detail for me.

Thank you

[Howlin]

Well, of course it does.

And I hope you don't mind, but unless you can produce the post, I don't we can take your word for it.

[Carolinamom]

I'd like to see Tort Reform a little higher up on that list of priorities.

[Howlin]

I think you are flat out lying when you call me an illegal lover.

And I'm done playing your stupid game. Go find somebody who doesn't know your MO to argue with.

[spodefly]

I'm sure anyone keeping score can look back through my posts and find another instance of where I have said that same thing before.

Best of luck.

[traumer]

"People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

[Howlin]

That's the point; thank you for making it; when you all are posting, you all post the same accusations, practically word for word, about people who don't agree with your fanatical obsessions.

[ßuddaßudd]

just observing another saga unfold

[B4Ranch]

I thought you were a Mod, that's why I asked you. Apologizing again.

Did you read all of my post?

>>Let me ask a question here. Are we spending too much time on these computers snarling at each other? The election has passed, President Bush made it into the White House again as we all knew he would.

This is OUR America, why are we fighting like this? We don't hate each other, do we? I don't hate you, that's for sure.

We may disagree on the next step that needs to be taken, but I can't hate another American who has strong beliefs about why America is the best country in the world and what it takes to keep her at the top. That's what makes America great. <<


I don't hate you, that's for sure, and I'm not trying top start a fight or get myself banned. I'm asking why we need to be wasting our efforts fighting with each other when we could be working out some kind of plan to get America back on an even keel again.

[B4Ranch]

>>I think you are flat out lying when you call me an illegal lover.<<

Are you saying that you do not support allowing the illegals to remain in America unbothered by Immigration Officials?

[drt1]

" Until they WE decide the overall cost to us is greater then the benefit they (These Employers) capture see, it ain't gonna stop.

There. That is the way I see it.<> The 'Employers' have either exerted influence in the political process to forestall action on Illegals or they have somehow convinced some that Illegals are 'Good', they do 'Jobs that no American wants to do' and 'They re just trying to support their families'. Either way, the onslaught inures to their benefit and to the detriment of the Taxpayer and, IMO, Society in general.

[Kozak]

Posted by Howlin to Kozak
On News/Activism 02/02/2005 10:51:28 PM CST · 4,265 of 4,592

since I started working at the age of 16?
Hey, punk, we're ALL been working since we were 16, some of us earlier.

That means that I'm paying in for somebody who never worked at all.

Try not to act so put-upon.

[Howlin]

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.

ROFLMAO.......you ping us to a thread with this remark and now you are trying to describe yourself as the peacemaker?

[Howlin]

Oh, why didn't you say it was on one of those "Boomer hater" threads.........

Talk about acting put upon.

[Howlin]

Are you saying that you do not support allowing the illegals to remain in America unbothered by Immigration Officials?

See, there you go; trying to make it look like I have supported that anywhere.

Now, loudmouth, PROVE I ever said anything close to that.

You seem to have a lot of time this morning; find a post where I said that.

[B4Ranch]

Once more,"Are you saying that you do not support allowing the illegals to remain in America unbothered by Immigration Officials?"

[spodefly]

... when you all are posting, you all post the same accusations, practically word for word, about people who don't agree with your fanatical obsessions.

That same thing can be said of both sides of this debate. If you favor rule of law and are against supporting the multibillion dollar industries of illegal aliens, document forgery, people smuggling, etc., then you are a racist xenophobe Stormfronter. Sound familiar?

Oh, and by the way, I am a Conservative. I don't have fanatical obsessions.