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
Oh yes, that clearly supports your position.(sarc) There has been over the last few years in my home state RI attempts to pass legislation giving illegals in-state tuition. As of yet it has not passed. Illegal aliens are not eligible for in-state tuition in RI.
Texas’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $4.7 billion per year
Illegal Immigration Costs California $10.5 Billion Annually
The chilling costs of illegal migration reach like an octopus into every aspect of our lives. Illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars last year according to Harvard Professor George Borjas.
Docs journal reports hospitals being closed, previously vanquished diseases being spread
Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.
He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.
The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies."
Meanwhile, the number of criminal aliens mounts. In 1980 there were approximately 9,000 criminal aliens in U.S. jails and prisons; by 1994 the number had jumped to 59,000. Today, criminal aliens account for more than 25 percent of all inmates in federal prisons and are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. The federal prison population of non-citizens has increased by about 15 percent per year from the mid–1980s to the present, compared to a 10 percent increase for U.S. citizens. Upkeep for each prisoner costs the taxpayers $21,300 per year.
CRIME VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
There is an enormous number of Americans who have been harmed by the criminals who pass through the nation's open borders. For that reason, this section can only provide a symbolic tribute to the many unnamed victims who have been killed, raped, robbed, crippled and otherwise personally violated.
It is particularly shocking that even in post-911 America, the government still refuses to protect the people in the most basic ways from the world's terrorists and criminals who enter at will to do as they please. The borders remain a sieve while the human carnage from crime perpetrated from illegal aliens continues to mount. In another stunner of INS malfeasance, the agency often cannot even manage to deport dangerous criminal aliens when they reach the ends of their prison terms.
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html
3.7 billion?
Hey Texans are getting off cheap!
the illegals are costing us NINE BILLION A YEAR IN CA!
but heck, all you FReepers want that cheap lettece from Walmart! So what's a few billion here and there...
I'm tellin' ya...we could FLY every illegal in America back home, put them up at the Four Seasons for a night and still be WAAAAAAY ahead of the game at the end of the year!
It doesn't matter. Were they to be sued, they would lose. The constitution is quite clear in regard to distinctions made ones immigration status.
It would be unconstitutional to force someone to speak a particular language.
Where are the ALCU suits? Youre simply wrong.
That line you quote has them dealing with the the benefits.
I don't think that the case has been made that immigration, legal or illegal, is much of an economic benefit to the nation as a whole. There may be certain industries where its crucial, but the biggest study done to date (that I'm aware of) was back in the mid-late 90s by the National Academy of Sciences. It put the net effects of immigration as positive...to the whopping tune of one tenth of one percent of GDP, or in other words, nothing.
"Where are the ALCU suits? Youre simply wrong." No, I'm quite right. See Plyer v Doe.
"Iron Eyes Cody" the great Indian actor, was an Italian. <(•¿•)>
Iron Eyes Cody (April 3, 1904 - January 4, 1999) was a actor born in Kaplan, Louisiana. He was born Espera DeCorti, the son of Italian immigrants Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti. He was not born a Native American, but he claimed to be part Cherokee and part Cree. His wife Bertha Parker and adopted children were Native American. Cody began his acting career at the age of 12 and continued to work until the time of his death. In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune exposed his true heritage, but Cody denied it.
He appeared in more than 200 films. However, he's most famous for his Crying Indian role in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement, an ecology commercial in which he shows a tear after looking at a polluted river.
"It put the net effects of immigration as positive...to the whopping tune of one tenth of one percent of GDP, or in other words, nothing."
That's certainly a different tune than the sky is falling I've heard on other immigration threads.
That is the crux of it. Big Ag get lots of dirt cheap labor without consequence.
Do not "Threaten"!
Either have the brass to do it, or admit you are a grand-standing empty suit!
Half measures are insufficient, bluffing is B.S.!
Just DO IT ALREADY!!!!!!!
Youre well informed. You know that case only applies to k-12. Why are you being so deceitful?
"...welfare is not stupid enough to give money to illegals"
Speechless. I hope you have a thick skin.
Maybe it is time for states to protect their own borders. The Federal Government seems to have abdicated that responsibility.
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