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http://www.avpress.com/n/05/0405_s3.hts

Cost of illegals: $420 million in government aid

Excerpted

LOS ANGELES - Through their citizen children, illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County collect $420 million annually in welfare and food stamps, according to a report requested by 5th District County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services told the supervisor that payments to illegal immigrants’ children amount to approximately 24% of the county’s combined CalWORKS and food stamps budget, officials said.

“What we found was kind of astonishing,” said Tony Bell, an Antonovich aide.

Each month, the county doles out $77 million in CalWORKS assistance, $20 million of which goes to the citizen dependent children of illegal immigrants, said Helen Berberian, another Antonovich aide. CalWORKS is the state’s welfare-to-work program.

Along with CalWORKS assistance, the county approves $70 million every month in food stamps, with $15 million going to legal children of illegal immigrants, Berberian said.

The welfare payments go to nearly 100,000 children of 60,000 illegal immigrants, Antonovich’s staff said. His staff estimated that Los Angeles County has almost 12% of the United States’ illegal immigrant population.

The welfare payments are just a portion of the impact from illegal immigrants and their children, Antonovich said.

“Illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers,” Antonovich said in a statement. “When the nearly one-half billion dollars spent on health care is added to the costs of public safety and health care, this brings the total cost to nearly $1 billion a year. This does not include the skyrocketing cost of education.”

According to Antonovich’s office, illegal immigrants annually cost the county $360 million in health care and $220 million in incarceration costs.