Posted on 08/24/2003 3:58:57 AM PDT by JustPiper
COMING TO AMERICA
$7.4 billion expense hurting American kids, group says
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."
Congratulations! We've just rented a bus and we are busing some of ours up to you.
Enjoy! And your hospitals should be hiring more ER personnel; it will be needed.
You've got to be kidding! They use food stamps provided by the taxpayer and get housing assistance provided also. Most of them DO NOT have taxes withheld from their pay.
Do you really believe this stuff, or are you just throwing bombs? Why don't you also tell us that they pay for their health care?
I have niece who works in the school system in the Bay area.She is going to quit because it is so overrun with illegals who require so much special attention.The mojados dump off there 5 kids, with no english skills and they think the pencil sharpener is for grinding corn.
They might work harder than you do,but real Americans are the hardest working people in the world, and the don't bleed the social services to feed and medicate 5 kids.
Then there are the other social costs.Criminals, driving without insurance and being dangerous drivers,the break down of the American way of life,disease they bring with them, and on and on.
They are here to have a better life for themselves while SCREWING UP THE LIVES HARD WORKING AMERICANS.They are going to be the downfall of this great nation.
Americans are fighting and dieing to keep this nation safe. Do you think the illegal invaders, who have done nothing to improve this country, should benefit from the deaths of brave American soldiers?
You're nuts!
That's a load of crap. Part of the reason that a lot of illegals can undercut everyone else in lawn service and construction is that they take cash and then don't report it.
And I have hired them to do exactly that. They do good work.
Part of the rent they pay goes to property tax.
Most of them cram 5 families into single family dwellings, thereby straining the local infrastructure.
Most likely they *do* have income (etc) taxes withheld from their pay.
How? By using fraudulent documents? Did you know that's a felony? It's also a crime for them to work here to begin with. Where does it end?
These are not bad people.
That is a bald faced lie if I ever heard one. They are all criminals.... every single one of them.
They work hard.
Not all of them do. It's unlawful for them to be here, it's unlawful for them to work here, and now you're saying that they work hard? Then why are their home countries such a mess?
Harder than most of the rest of "us" do.
"Us?" Why is that in quotes?
All they want is a better life than what they could have had where they used to live.
The same can be said about car thieves, burglars, bank robbers, and other criminals. If they want 'better lives', I suggest that they occupy their time building a better Mexico, not mooching off the United States. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up, and immediately removed from the country.
Nothing but truth and reality has been posted in response to The Other Harry and like all liberals he just cant see it or hear it.
So "The Other Harry"
he'll be coming with the el Migra ver-rrr-y soon!
In general, they do lousy work. There are some that are skilled, but as a whole, their work is slip-shod. Today a painter, yesterday a framer...last week a mason. Thats why the housing in California is a bunch of junk compared to elsewhere with real craftsmen.
It goes on from there all right. If they do have any income tax withheld they then go on to file for the "Earned Income Tax Credit" that will give them back more than they paid. Illegals stealing from the public again.
Bump, agreed! I am infuriated because our school system is the worse of any nation and we spread our funds so thin, that our kids education is bankrupt morally, financially and academically! We would once again have enough $$$, with no recession if we deported all illegals!
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