Posted on 07/09/2009 9:45:05 PM PDT by Steelfish
Deficit may trigger anti-illegal immigration ballot measure
To save money, activists may try to cut aid for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
Anna Gorman and Teresa Watanabe
July 9, 2009
As California lawmakers struggle with a budget gap now grown to $26.3 billion, one of the hottest topics for many taxpayers is the cost to the state of illegal immigrants.
The question of whether taxpayers should provide services to illegal residents became a major political issue in California's last deep recession, culminating in the ballot fight over Proposition 187 in 1994.
That history could repeat itself in the current downturn, as activists opposed to illegal immigration have launched a campaign for an initiative that would, among other things, cut off welfare payments to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Those children are eligible for welfare benefits because they are U.S. citizens.
State welfare officials estimate that cutting off payments to illegal immigrants for their U.S.-born children could save about $640 million annually if it survives legal challenges.
California has roughly 2.7 million illegal residents, according to an April 2009 report from the authoritative Pew Hispanic Center, accounting for about 7% of the state's population. State officials estimate that they add between $4 billion and $6 billion in costs, primarily for prisons and jails, schools and emergency rooms.
Beyond those services, the illegal population adds to the overall cost of other parts of local government, from police and fire protection to highway maintenance and libraries.
On the other side of the ledger, illegal residents pay taxes -- sales taxes on what they buy, gasoline taxes when they fuel their cars, property taxes if they own homes. How much those taxes come to is hotly debated, although most researchers agree that the short-term costs to state and local government are bigger than...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It’s about time.
Which means the real number is probably around $10 billion or almost 1/2 of the California deficit!
I love how they keep on changing the language of what these parasites are. First they are “illegal” immigrants but that implies a violation of criminal law so now they are “undocumented”. Like that is supposed to make me or anyone feel sympathy for the fact that they are here in violation of the law and sucking off the system like a bunch of ticks infesting a deer or a tapeworm in the gut.
I am 110% in favor of this, but won't the 14th Amendment be a problem? Even laws targeting the illegals themselves (Prop 187) come under fire in the courts.
Correct- this is a matter for Congress not the States.
Latest figure I saw wasw 12.8 Billion.
Strawman argument. Native-born children should receive benefits even though their parents should be deported. No one is for denying citizens benefits, just their criminal parents.
Just so you know: lots of people think that the 14th amendment does not confer citizenship on all born in the USA. One person who would apparently have agreed with that reasoning was Jacob Howard, who wrote the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment.
Knowing CA, they probably pay full-boat for both the parents and kids even if they are illegals.
Horse manure. Why don't you just buy billboard space along Mexican highways that let pregnant Mexicans know that they better hurry up and sneak into California so their babies can get on the American taxpayer dole for the rest of their lives?
Or more. Bet on it!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!..that's as far as I got.....Is there more??????????
UNDOCUMENTED?...I'm one of the most documented workers in the US!!!!!!!!
Exterminate the ILLEGALS from the state and you’ll hardly have a budget problem.
Prop 187 has never been reviewed by an appeals court. The judge who invalidated it, Pfaelzer, waited months to release her decision in order for Pete Wilson to leave office. Incoming Gov Gray Davis agreed not to contest her ruling. In essence democracy in California has been denied by two people acting in concert.
Arnold could ask for Prop 187 to be reviewed the court of appeals any time that he wants to. But, being the good GOP stooge that he is he won’t do it. The elites in the GOP have been pro-illegal for years. It will take the rank and file to force the issue.
The 14th Amendment applied to slaves and the children of slaves. The idea that it should apply to the children of foreign nationals needs to be challenged in court.
They already know. The whole 3rd world already knows. No billboard needed.
I have to object to your calling them “parasites”. The parasites are the politicians who won’t enforce the law, and the business owners who hire illegals. I’m against illegal immigration as much as you are, including amnesty, but if you were Mexican, I’m sure you’d try to get to the US also.
I disagree. The kids can stay... but the parents get deported and the kids get put in orphanages or foster cars if the parents won’t take the kid with them or the kid wants to stay.
Should solve that problem quite neatly.
Ping
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