How Illegal Aliens are Bankrupting and Disenfranchising the American Middle and Working Classes

Legend has long held that illegal aliens give American citizens cheap lettuce and cheap child care. Excepting for agribusiness and the upper classes, that legend is, in reality, a nightmare, in which the American middle and working classes pay and pay and pay for illegal immigration, and get nothing but grief in return.

In states with heavy illegal alien populations, the budget of a middle-class family is full of hidden illegal alien surcharges. As a result, today’s middle-class American family with two full-time working parents has less discretionary income than its traditional forebear, in which the father alone was breadwinner. (Conditions are that much worse for families torn apart by divorce or the death of a parent.) And things are only getting worse. In California, for example, immigration writer Ed Rubenstein estimates that legal and illegal immigration combine to cost American-born California taxpayers $21.7 billion per year, for a 6.6% annual surcharge. And as Rubenstein points out, legal immigrants also have a voracious appetite for social services: “California immigrant households received a net subsidy from combined federal, state, and local programs averaging $6,145 in 1996.”

Compared to previous generations, middle-class Americans today pay outrageous prices, as a proportion of their incomes, for homes, in order to be able to protect their children from “bad schools.” So say the mother-daughter writing team of Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, and journalist Steve Sailer.

In Warren and Tyagi’s new book, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke, they write that "The brunt of the price increases has fallen on families with children. Data from the Federal Reserve show that [after inflation] the median home value for the average childless individual increased by 23 percent between 1983 and 1998 … For married couples with children, however, housing prices shot up 79 percent—more than three times faster."

And yet, the white American working class can only dream of such headaches. For its members, home ownership - in any neighborhood - is increasingly an impossible dream. And when economists talk about what illegal immigration costs the typical American worker, the averages (see below) include millions of workers who have been locked out of entire industries by employers who refuse to hire Americans, or by illegal immigrant workers who will not tolerate Americans in their midst. This is the ugly truth behind the propaganda of immigration enthusiasts, who insist that illegal aliens are doing "Jobs that Americans won't do."

In 1968, Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act (aka Title VII), which mandated teaching Hispanic children in Spanish and English, which in practice has meant in Spanish only. (The BEA was officially “eliminated” by the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, yet NCLB did not eliminate bilingual education, which radical U.S. Department of Education officials force more aggressively than ever on the public schools.)

In states buffeted by high levels of illegal immigration, including the entire American Southwest, Florida, New York, and Illinois, the public schools are being inundated by unassimilable, illegal immigrants and the children of illegal immigrants, including foreign street gangs. Such schools are typically dominated by incompetent, racist, Hispanic (in Florida, often by Haitian) nationalists at the staff, faculty, and administrative level, who increasingly dispense with the teaching of English. And the foreign nationalist “educators” get paid more than do their English-speaking counterparts!

In California, which has approximately four million illegal immigrants (out of 9 million-13 million nationally), illegal immigrants have destroyed a public school system that for generations was the envy of the nation. For middle-class, American parents to leave their children in such hostile environments would constitute neglect. And so, while some parents have placed their children in often expensive private schools, others have sought safe public school districts. Realtors have cashed in. Thus must middle-class Americans pay exorbitant taxes to maintain public schools from which they have been disenfranchised, or buy overpriced homes, while people who are here illegally use the schools for free.

Throughout the American Southwest, public and private hospitals alike face the prospect of shutting down, because of the onslaught of illegal immigrants. State and local laws prohibit hospital emergency rooms from turning away any patient, based on his inability to pay, or from inquiring into a patient’s citizenship status.

Exploiting such laws, illegal immigrants use emergency rooms for primary medical care, including for the common cold, so as to get out of paying for their care. Meanwhile, American patients with real medical emergencies, whose taxes maintain those hospitals and who pay for their own medical care, are turned away.

News reports tell of Californians with medical emergencies who are forced to drive from hospital to hospital, since facilities close their emergency rooms to new patients as early as noontime. Bizarrely, such reports never mention the role of illegal immigration in causing the medical crisis. Instead, one hears only of “uninsured” patients, amid suggestions that the system needs massive transfusions of tax dollars, and that America needs European or Canadian-style socialized (“universal”) health care. None of the stories this reporter has seen, has told of illegal aliens ever being turned away from medical facilities, no matter how trivial their complaint. Thus are Americans disenfranchised by the very medical system they pay so much to maintain.

And Americans pay higher auto insurance rates, to make up for illegal aliens who drive illegally and without insurance, and cause accidents.

Illegal immigrants’ defrauding of California’s generous welfare system has long been a scandal. Such welfare fraud is now a national scandal, as state and local governments operating stealth amnesty programs violate the Constitution, in negotiating directly with Mexico and other foreign governments, to accept the “matricula consular,” an insecure form of ID used exclusively by illegal aliens, and in issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Illegals may then use either the matricula consular or state driver’s licence to receive welfare benefits from officials who are not permitted to ask an applicant his citizenship status. Meanwhile, a driver’s license can be used to illegally register to vote.

Increasing numbers of states are following New York’s example, and granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens, at the same time that they charge law-abiding, American citizens from other states two and three times the in-state rate. And as illegal aliens are taking the initiative, suing colleges in Virginia for the right to break the law, illegals in the other states will surely follow suit. Thus do those who, as a matter of law, have no civil rights, demand and receive such rights at the expense of Americans, who are robbed of theirs. Meanwhile, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) seeks to make the lawsuits moot, as his DREAM Act would repeal the federal law prohibiting the granting of in-state tuition to illegals.

Again, it is the citizens who must pay for the illegals. And via affirmative action, unqualified, illegal college applicants are admitted ahead of qualified Americans, foreclosing on the already limited opportunities for the children of the white, working poor to improve their lot. (A multitude of programs exist for such children's black and Hispanic counterparts.)

But that isn’t the half of it. As columnist Paul Craig Roberts has pointed out, unqualified immigrants – including illegals – enjoy affirmative action privileges, in getting jobs in place of qualified, American citizens.

It is no wonder that for years, Americans have been fleeing California, whose population has been buoyed exclusively through incoming illegal immigrants.

As economist George Borjas has shown, America’s immigration policy costs every American worker an average of $2,578 in annual income, in the form of depressed wages, in addition to all the hidden surcharges I listed above. And with every stealth amnesty, more illegals stream across America’s borders to all her states. And as the unfortunate American residents of far-flung Lewiston, Maine have learned, the federal government is inviting foreigners to come here LEGALLY, to partake of welfare programs that disenfranchised Americans must pay for.

Finally, as Steve Sailer has reported, illegal immigration is disenfranchising Americans through the unconstitutional creation of “rotten boroughs,” in which only a small portion of the populace may legally vote. Rotten boroughs arise because congressional districts are created based on numbers of “residents,” rather than citizens.

Unlike the wealthy liberals who support every sort of handout for immigrants, Middle Americans who actually have to work for a living, cannot afford an unlimited number of hidden, illegal immigration taxes and surcharges. Like the classic science fiction movie, the current situation could be called, Invasion of the Citizen Snatchers. Or simply, as in the title of Michelle Malkin’s book, Invasion.

After reading this (his comments about what is happening in California are true), how can any thinking person NOT be angry at President Bush who continues to encourage illegal immigration simply by refusing to enforce the law? Americans are becoming increasingly outraged, yet our President and Congress turn their backs on us.

This is the ugly truth behind the propaganda of immigration enthusiasts, who insist that illegal aliens are doing "Jobs that Americans won't do."

Do the pro-illegal immigrant dummies realize that not only will the illegals take the jobs that "Americans won't do" (and I disagree wholeheartedly with that premise, but I digress....), the illegals are taking the jobs that Americans WILL do, such as construction and trade jobs? Doesn't it stand to reason that if employers can get away with paying Mexicans less for vegetable picking, that they can also get away with paying Mexicans less for what used to be high-paying jobs, like framing houses and pouring concrete, installing heating and air conditioning? Do the pro-illegal dummies really think that employers in THOSE fields aren't going to take advantage of all that cheap labor and shut out the American workers?

Are they really as stupid as they appear to be?

citizens instead of spreading this scare-mongering that borders on racism.

And what would you call us if the illegals were lily-white Swedes, doing the same exact thing to the American taxpayers? Norsists?

here's an idea: legalize them. turn them into enfranchised, tax-paying citizens instead of spreading this scare-mongering that borders on racism.>>>>>>>>

Duh.......We've ALREADY done this.....The blanket amnesty (REWARD) in 1986, & SEVEN 'new deadlines' since on the 'mini amnesties' have only resulted in the 10 MILLION plus who are here now waiting for the next amnesty (REWARD) for breaking our laws.

The Mexican government has developed a deliberate strategy to influence American immigration policy, increase the number of Mexicans in the United States, slow their assimilation, and retain their loyalty to Mexico. This is no secret conspiracy — Mexico’s leaders speak openly of it. In Mexico, the majority has relatives in the US.. to most Americans, unfortunately, this is a periphral issue. (it was for me..til now)

I've posted this quote by Presidente Fox but I think it needs repeating,""In the last few months we have managed to achieve an improvement in the situation of many Mexicans in that country, regardless of their migratory status, through schemes that have permitted them access to health and education systems, identity documents, as well as the full respect for their laboral and human rights." When you consider the number of illegals in the US, we are on the road to bankruptcy. Flood the WH with calls tomorrow letting them know your reaction to the Bush proposal for any amnesty. Write in Tancredo in the March, 2004, primaries.

here's an idea: legalize them. turn them into enfranchised, tax-paying citizens instead of spreading this scare-mongering that borders on racism.

Here's an idea. If you and all your relatives agree to surrender your jobs and your property, and move to Mexico, and every other open borders enthusiast agrees to do the same, I'll support the abolition of America's borders. People like you are no better than the socialists who profit from race-based welfare programs, yet who race-bait anyone who criticizes the programs.

Your refusal to akcnowledge the cold, hard facts the article presents, borders on racism.

This is the ugly truth behind the propaganda of immigration enthusiasts, who insist that illegal aliens are doing "Jobs that Americans won't do."

Are they really as stupid as they appear to be?

When someone appears that stupid, there's usually some self-interest at work. Smells like a class war to me.

.."scare-mongering that borders on racism"

America’s attempts to control its own borders are presented as “racist,” “xenophobic,” and “anti-Mexican", it is none of these nor is it 'scare-mongering". When you consider, that Fox himself has stated that there are 23 million (not the number Ridge has given) illegals in this country, and those illegals are sending the majority of the $$ they make BACK to Mexico. Now that is scare mongering? I think not. Do the research.

I am really against illegal Immigration, however, I am a proponent of legal Immigration.
Look at some facts. In the last 20 years we, the US, have grown in population by 35%. We now have close to 300 million people. Yet our Unemployment numbers have not really changed during that time. It simply means that Jobs continue to be created (although different kind of jobs)and that those immigrants also contribute to our infrastructure, economy, etc.
We do need increases in population, unless we want to become like the Europeans, who have become too lazy to breed and therefore are destroying their socio-economic future. They have to deal with Depopulation, which is infinately more dangerous than a growing population with social problems beyond belief.
Illegal immigration helps no one. The undocumented workers can't open a bank account, can't pay into Social security, even if they wanted to, don't pay income taxes, etc. They lack the one thing required to assimilate: A Social Security number, which only legal immigration allows.

And what would you call us if the illegals were lily-white Swedes, doing the same exact thing to the American taxpayers? Norsists?

we used to have many names for lily-white Irish immigrants in the 19th century... I'm sure I'll think of something.

Duh.......We've ALREADY done this.....The blanket amnesty (REWARD) in 1986, & SEVEN 'new deadlines' since on the 'mini amnesties' have only resulted in the 10 MILLION plus who are here now waiting for the next amnesty (REWARD) for breaking our laws.

I ain't talking about amnesty. I'm talking about unconditional, free immigration for all able-bodied persons without a criminal record. everyone has a right to the American Dream.

here's an idea: legalize them. turn them into enfranchised, tax-paying citizens instead of spreading this scare-mongering that borders on racism.

Sure why not? If course, there are MILLIONS who are in the midst of the actual process that is sanctioned by THE LAW and have spent years and thouands of dollars and have followed the rules as laid out. The heck with those shmucks -- buncha idiots actually following the rules.

Better to reward bald lawlessness and, in doing so, encourage others.

Moron.

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