I guess I agree with the mayor on two out of three his criticisms. Though I don't think immigrants have a right to welfare benefits, I do agree with Rudy and the USSC that all children have a right to public school access. I also believe that the first job of public safety and medical personnel is to render aid, not to check one's papers.
Who do you think pays for all of those services? All children have a right to public school access? Who confers this right?
Immigration, legal and illegal, contributes to three quarters of the US population growth. Since 1970, we have added 100 million people to our population. Since 1990, 53 million and since 2000, 20 million or the equivalent of our seven largest cities. By 2030 there will be, according to Bureau of Census projections, 364 million and by 2050, over 400 million.
These people need schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, gasoline, etc. They also will rely on our social welfare systems like medicare and medicaid. Illegal aliens make up a fourth of our federal prison inmates. The percentages are even higher in places like California.
We take in over a million legal immigrants a year, with the majority coming from Spanish-speaking countries and 43% from Mexico. Another 500,000 to 1 million are coming in illegally every year. Eventually, the lifeboat is going to be swamped. And the sad part is that we don't even know how many are here illegally because various interest groups block us from even gathering the data. Schools and hospitals can't even "check one's papers" to gauge the size and scope of the problem. We need this data to make good public policy. In the meantime, the local governments are increasing taxes to pay for these additional people and many of our schools and hospitals are having a difficult time supporting this burgeoning population.