[r9etb]

I never take seriously any claims people make without backing them up. This guy uses the "studies show" line of BS, without saying which studies and from where.

Here is the Texas Comptroller's report. (You could easily have found it yourself, you know.... the guy did reference it pretty specifically. I found it on the very first try.)

The report states that there are significant costs associated with illegal immigration. On balance, however, report concludes that:

The Comptroller’s office estimates the absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal 2005 would have been a loss to our Gross State Product of $17.7 billion. Also, the Comptroller’s office estimates that state revenues collected from undocumented immigrants exceed what the state spent on services, with the difference being $424.7 million

So ... will you take his claim seriously now?

[fr_freak]

Here is the Texas Comptroller's report. (You could easily have found it yourself, you know.... the guy did reference it pretty specifically. I found it on the very first try.)

The Texas Comptroller's report is the ONLY thing this guy actually referenced, although he referred to numerous other "studies". And yeah, I could have looked it up easily, smart guy, but I didn't doubt that the comptroller's report said what he claimed - I only doubt that the comptroller's report is a definitive picture of what is really going on, either in the country, or even just in Texas. As an example of one probable flaw, I'm sure the comptroller does not include anchor babies in the cost statistics of illegal aliens, because they are technically citizens, even though they would never have been citizens if their parents hadn't broken US law in the first place.

The main point is that if you are going to write up an essay on how the belief that illegal immigrants are more of a cost than a benefit is pure myth, you need to cite a source for every hard number you claim.