Illegals busting education budget

An immigration reform group says in a new study it costs states more than $7.4 billion a year to educate illegal aliens, with budget-busted California spending more than any other.

Worse, warns the Federation for American Immigration Reform report, the extra expenditures are taking funds away from American children at a time when "public schools throughout the country are facing some of the most significant decreases in state education funding in decades."

Many Mexican children cross into U.S. from Mexico daily to go to school. (Jon Dougherty/WND photo)

"With state budgets in crisis and children taking the hit, communities' limited tax dollars are being diverted to accommodate mass illegal immigration," said the report. "In some states, the amount of money spent to educate illegal alien children accounts for a substantial portion of the state budget shortfall; in New Jersey, for instance, it accounts for 28 percent of the total state budget deficit."

FAIR says almost two-thirds of states either have cut back or proposed reductions in their child care and early childhood programs.

"In some states, drastic cuts mean lay-offs for teachers, larger class sizes, fewer textbooks, and eliminating sports, language programs and after-school activities," the report noted.

The total cost, FAIR says, is "enough to buy a computer for every junior high student nationwide."

Other immigration reformists have said the cost of providing education and other public services to illegals has steadily been on the rise.

Adding to those costs, says Jim Boulet, Jr., head of English First, a group pushing English as the nation's official language, are translation costs to schools that must hire interpreters for Spanish-only immigrant students.

Plus, Boulet told WorldNetDaily, "Cuban Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Chicano Spanish, and additional forms of Spanish all exist within the borders of the U.S., creating vast potential for cross-cultural confusion" and, of course, extra expense, despite "California being an official English state."

According to the FAIR report, California spends the most – $2.2 billion – to educate illegal immigrant children. Ranking second and third, respectively, are Texas and New York.

FAIR analysts said each state's per-pupil expenditure was reported by the U.S. Department of Education. The group said it based its figures on the Urban Institute's estimate of 1.1 million school-aged illegal immigrant children currently residing in the U.S.

The report also says there are efforts underway in several states and Congress to allow illegal aliens to pay deeply discounted, in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities – rates not available to American citizens from out of state.

"As states cut school funding left and right, all of our children – native-born and immigrants alike – are receiving a poorer education as a result of the federal government passing its immigration law enforcement failures on to the states," the report concluded. "The implications for the coming generations of workers, our future economy and our long-term competitiveness in the world cannot be ignored."

Supporters of immigration say the cost to educate immigrant children – legal or otherwise – is a non-issue.

"Regardless of what the dollar figure is, these children have a right to an education," Jim Ferg-Cadima, legislative staff lawyer at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, told The Washington Times. "The issue was litigated all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court decided on the issue."

In the high court's 1982 decision, Plyler v. Doe, justices said in a 5-4 decision the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment forbade public schools from prohibiting any children, regardless of citizenship status, an education.

Other supporters say the cost of educating illegals is minimal compared to the overall $700 billion annual cost of public education. And, they say it is the nation's best interests to educate illegal alien children rather than ignore them.

Still, the costs are continuing to rise and they come at a time when more Americans have become fed up with providing benefits to illegal immigrants.

An Aug. 30, 2001, Harris Interactive poll found 60 percent of Americans opposed a new plan to grant illegals amnesty.

"By decisive margins, the American public believes that illegal immigration is a net drain on public resources and that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will encourage even more people to migrate illegally," the survey said.

A RoperASW poll in March found three in four Americans would reduce the number of immigrants allowed into the country annually. Fifty-eight percent would limit legal immigration to 300,000 a year, and 85 percent viewed illegal immigration as a "serious" problem.

"Illegal immigration is no free lunch," Dan Stein, executive director of FAIR, told the Times. "It's about shifting burdens – lowering labor costs at a tremendous cost not only to American taxpayers but to American kids."

Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, said U.S. and state governments could reduce costs by enforcing laws on the books.

"The solution is to start enforcing the law – not just at the border, which is politically easy, but also inside the country," he told WorldNetDaily.

Added FAIR spokesman David Ray: "If illegal immigration is not stopped at the border, its negative consequences, including bankrupt emergency rooms and overcrowded schools, quickly become everyone's financial burden."

(COPY AND DISTRIBUTE WIDELY. Revise and extend as you see fit, start a movement, print a petition, start a political party, confront your legislators, write letters, post posters, drop leaflets, demand, demand, demand…)

18 POINT ACTION PLAN: Border Violators

1) Close all US borders to illegal entry forthwith by any and all means possible, including military presence.

2) Maintain legitimate immigration levels at modest annual level with requirements that immigrants be employable or sufficiently wealthy for self-support if they do not intend to work, proficient in basic English and willing to be assimilated into American culture and language. All applicants shall provide prints, photos and DNA samples.

3) Legal immigration shall be awarded to individuals on a lottery basis, wherein all countries are given equal status in the immigration lottery, without regards to color or economic plight of originating nation.

4) Individuals of Islamic faith (muslims) from any country shall be denied immigration privileges or entry into the US. Christians and Jews from muslim countries fleeing religious persecution shall receive preferential and accelerated immigration privileges.

5) Detain all border violators, taking photos, prints and DNA samples of said violator while at the same time, checking for out standing warrants. If no warrants are outstanding, return border violators to home country within 20 days via commercial airline and submit cost of such action, including processing and housing costs for said violator, to country of origin. If costs are not paid within 30 days, reduce any and all aid to said country by a like amount.

6) Should any country from which a border violator originates not currently receive any aid from the US, the Justice Department shall be authorized to seize or secure liens on assets owned, managed or registered to that country to the full extent of the obligation.

7) Establish new Guest Worker Visa (GWV) category, renewable every six (6) months, for unskilled labor positions wherein all applicants shall provide prints, photos and DNA samples. Work permitted of such applicants shall be limited to one of several categories, including childcare, lawn/gardening, restaurant staff, cleaning, and the like. Families of GWV workers are not permitted to enter US, nor will the birth of a child to one of GWV status confer citizenship to either parent or child.

8) Any violation of civil or criminal laws shall result in the forfeiture of the GWV and immediate return to originating country.

9) GWV holders shall be prohibited from claiming unemployment benefits, welfare support or free medical service.

10) The originating country of all GWV holders shall be responsible for any uninsured loss caused by the GWV, including emergency medical claims and/or claims resulting from illegal actions committed while in the US.

11) Companies who hire GWV holders shall submit to the Immigration Dept the name and GWV number of that individual, along with a description of employment tasks. Companies shall be subject to fines and penalty that fail to report employment of GWV workers, or hire border violators. GWV workers shall be paid with check, having income tax withheld. GWV workers shall not be subject to unemployment tax because they are not eligible to receive unemployment compensation.

12) Border violators, or any non-citizen not possessing a valid visa, detained by local police for any reason shall be turned over to border control officials for immediate deportation action, except if they face criminal charges in other jurisdictions.

13) GWV workers shall be prohibited for voting in local, state and federal elections.

14) Border Violators shall NOT be afforded the rights enjoyed by American citizens, as guaranteed under the constitution.

15) Public education (at institutions supported by taxpayer dollars) at any level (pre-school, kindergarten through the university level,) shall NOT be available to Border Violators (or children of Border Violators) and schools that enroll such individuals shall be subject to penalties.

16) Foreign Students (F/S) (individuals admitted to the U.S. for the purpose of attending any educational facility,) private institution or public (i.e. supported by taxpayer dollars,) must have valid student visas, such visas being in force only if the F/S attends school full-time. F/S shall be required to pay tuition, housing and related costs such that all their educational costs are fully reimbursed to the institution attended. The originating country shall pay for any and all loss caused by students while on U.S. soil.

17) Border Violators seeking emergency medical treatment shall provide pictures, fingerprints and DNA samples along with country of origin, and shall be treated then incarcerated until information provided can be verified. Originating country shall bear the costs of medical treatment and confinement.

18) Children born in the U.S. to border violators, illegal aliens or of foreign nationals in the U.S. for any reason (including temporary visitor, school or work visas,) shall not be eligible for citizenship as circumstances of birth, nor shall the parents or parent’s family members (relatives) be conferred U.S. citizenship as a result of such births.

My ancestors didn't urinate in public.

I was heading for work last week at about 7:00 AM in downtown Nashville TN and saw a young Mexican man urinating in broad daylight not a block from Baptist Hospital, across from a medical clinic. He apparently was waiting with his Mexican buddies for their law-breaking employer to take them to their job for the day.

These people are third-world trash with no respect for civility or sanitation. The Americans who hire them ought to be jailed and stripped of all their homes and possessions for breaking the law by hiring them.

While campaigning here in Tennessee, for congress last year, I talked to a man who owned a small engine repair business. He had just called the police about Mexican workers defecating in the open in broad daylight next to his business.

Congratulations Americans, you've allowed your country to become a third-world sewer.

Illegal Mexicans don't work harder than I do. They are breaking the law by their presence. They are stealing my tax dollars by using public services without paying for them. Many of them do not have federal income tax withheld from their pay as the rest of us do. Their children are not required to have proof of immunizations to enter public school while the children of American citizens cannot go to school without such proof.

They are bankrupting scores of American hospitals because they cannot pay for the medical services they demand.

What paltry sales taxes they pay do not begin to cover the costs to the American people.

You are wrong about these people. They come here to break the law and exploit our generosity and foolishness. They will take everything we will foolishly allow them to take. They have no respect for our laws, our language or our culture.

We built the world's greatest country without abandoning laws of immigration and naturalization and we would be vastly a better nation if we respected legal immigrants by throwing out the illegal ones.

I have personally talked to thousands of LEGAL immigrants and they deeply resent the lawbreakers who trespass and destroy our legal system, strain our economy, fill our prisons and ruin our proud heritage through the cooperation of traitorous, cowardly politicians.

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