Posted on 04/11/2005 5:25:04 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Analysis of the latest Census data indicates Texas’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $4.7 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 more than $3.7 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden amounts to about $725 per Texas 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.
Other significant costs associated with illegal immigration exist, and these too should be taken into account by federal and state officials. Even without accounting for all of the numerous areas in which costs associated with illegal immigration are being incurred by Texas taxpayers, the program areas analyzed in this study indicate that the burden is substantial and that the costs are rapidly increasing.
The more than $4.7 billion in costs incurred by Texas taxpayers annually result from outlays in the following areas:
Education. Based on estimates of the illegal immigrant population in Texas and documented costs of K-12 schooling, Texans spend more than $4 billion annually on education for illegal immigrant children and for their U.S.-born siblings. About 11.9 percent of the K-12 public school students in Texas are children of illegal aliens.
Health Care. Taxpayer-funded medical outlays for health care provided to the state’s illegal alien population amount to about $520 million a year.
Incarceration. The uncompensated cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in Texas’s state and county prisons amounts to about $150 million a year (not including local jail detention costs or 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 slightly less than $1 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, welfare programs used by the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, or welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal alien workers were also calculated.
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. Texans should not be expected to assume this already large and growing burden from illegal immigration simply because local businesses or other special interests benefit from being able to employ lower cost workers. The state could 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 illegal immigrants apprehended for breaking the law can be expeditiously turned over to the 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.
Texas has also voluntarily adopted policies that add to the cost burdens of illegal immigration. While all states are compelled under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision to provide a free K-12 education to all children, irrespective of their immigration status, they are under no obligation to subsidize education beyond that point. Nevertheless, the Texas legislature and Governor Perry have decided to grant in-state tuition benefits at public colleges and universities to illegal aliens.
It is unreasonable for a state to expect federal assistance to compensate for the fiscal burden of illegal immigration if it is pursuing policies that encourage illegal aliens to come and remain in the state.
The full report is available in html and pdf
April 2005
Yes and anyone who states that we owe ILLEGALS an education or anything else should be booted out of office. And that includes GW, Kennedy, or anyone else who advocates it.!!!!!!
Ive read it before and read it again. Dont see what youre pointing to.
"Ive read it before and read it again. Dont see what youre pointing to."
Sorry then.
lol Perhaps you could post the excerpt you claim you base your opinon on?
"unlike us immigrants don't demand Welfare and SS. I hope your talking about LEGAL'S not ILLEGALS because if you look at the burden that Illegals put on just Texas's and Cal. taxpayers you would change your tune.
"I know this is a cliche, but illegal immigrants really do take up the jobs that we don't want"
There is no job that Americans won't do if the pay is good.
"When an immigrant takes up a job, they are contributing to their employer, who in turn contributes to the rest of us through the taxes they and the immigrants themselves pay. Unlike us citizens, immigrants don't demand welfare and social security. They mainly want education for their child, something that I think we can all understand and relate to."
What a load of crap. Where did you get your talking points? LaRaza?
Your statement is false as far as I know. For example see my article on California's Prop. 187 in the illegal immigration section of my web site at www.allanfavish.com
"Aliens, even aliens whose presence in this country is unlawful, have long been recognized as 'persons' guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments," Plyer v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 210 (1982); see also Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, 344 U.S. 590, 596 (1953) (resident aliens are persons within the protection of the Fifth Amendment and may not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process); Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 238 (1896) (aliens accused of a crime are entitled to Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights).
Aliens enjoy equal protection rights as well, but distinctions between illegal aliens and others do not require as strong justifications as distinctions between citizens and aliens lawfully in the United States. Distinctions between resident aliens and citizens require more justification, but not the compelling state interests required for distinctions based on race. The longer an alien has been in the United States and the more legitimate the alien's immigration status, the more equivalent the alien's equal protection rights are to those of a U.S. citizen. Consistent with Article 25 of the Covenant, aliens are generally precluded from voting or holding federal elective office.
Agreed. The Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot with this issue. Why? All I can think of is that with chavez being flakey they are concerned a foreign source of oil. No, not into GW or Dick Cheney's pocket but because the world's economy runs on it and if Venezuala cut off our supply, it would hurt. Don't agree with it but that's all that I can think of. We bailed mexico out in the 80's to the tune of 40-50 billion dollars and they show no respect for us.
Hey, Vincente howzabout payin' that money back in oil startin' now.
"For example see my article on California's Prop. 187"
The federal courts trump your article. It's a well settled area of law.
"When an immigrant takes up a job, they are contributing to their employer, who in turn contributes to the rest of us through the taxes they and the immigrants themselves pay."
So, we should all quit our jobs and let illegals have them because it would be better for us?
" Unlike us citizens, immigrants don't demand welfare and social security."
You don't know the situation very well, do you? Illegals take billionsin welfare, emergency room care, etc. I do believe Los Angeles has lost their emergency rooms because they could no longer afford to operate them due to the illegals.
Thank you.
Where are you posting from that your born on date is tomorrow?
"...illegals are going to save Social Security..."
The catch, of course, is that the illegals will also be beneficiaries. They will get about $100,000 each from SS. Since they are uneducated and low-pay people, they will not, in their lifetime, pay in as much as they will take out. That is assuming they pay any taxes at all.
Re: Congress - it's a mistake to let socialists play with a capitalist economy.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Which one of these clauses were you referring to>?
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization
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