There are closer to 20 million if the truth be known. Attrition thru enforcement works. We have more choices than mass deportation or a blanket amnesty.
Now, what to do about illegals receiving benefits? I read a study on it and they DO receive benefits in most states. Mostly, they receive food stamps and medicaid.,
They are not entitled to federal benefits except thru their anchor babies. 300,000 to 400,000 anchor babies are born each year in this country. They are entitled to Medicaid, food stamps, etc. just like any other American citizen. The biggest costs to the taxpayers for illegals are education (K-12) and health care. Incarceration costs are the third highest not to mention the tens of thousands of Americans who have been killed or injured by illegals. There are 26,000 illegal aliens in federal prisons being held for murder.
But, interestingly enough, they do not receive benefits because they are not working. Virtually all of the Mexican families had at least one family member working, many had two. The problem is that they work at menial, low-paying jobs and have incomes low enough to qualify for those benefits.
Here is a recent study: Welfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children A Look at Cash, Medicaid, Housing, and Food Programs It provides good data on welfare use. Some highlights:
•We estimate that 52 percent of households with children headed by legal immigrants used at least one welfare program in 2009, compared to 71 percent for illegal immigrant households with children. Illegal immigrants generally receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children.
• In 2009 (based on data collected in 2010), 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children.
• Immigrant households’ use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid. Their use of cash and housing programs tends to be similar to native households.
• Households with children with the highest welfare use rates are those headed by immigrants from the Dominican Republic (82 percent), Mexico and Guatemala (75 percent), and Ecuador (70 percent). Those with the lowest use rates are from the United Kingdom (7 percent), India (19 percent), Canada (23 percent), and Korea (25 percent).
• The states where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62 percent); Texas, California, and New York (61 percent); Pennsylvania (59 percent); Minnesota and Oregon (56 percent); and Colorado (55 percent).
• Illegal immigrant households with children primarily use food assistance and Medicaid, making almost no use of cash or housing assistance. In contrast, legal immigrant households tend to have relatively high use rates for every type of program.
• Although most new legal immigrants are barred from using some welfare for the first five years, this provision has only a modest impact on household use rates because most immigrants have been in the United States for longer than five years; the ban only applies to some programs; some states provide welfare to new immigrants with their own money; by becoming citizens immigrants become eligible for all welfare programs; and perhaps most importantly, the U.S.-born children of immigrants (including those born to illegal immigrants) are automatically awarded American citizenship and are therefore eligible for all welfare programs at birth.
• An unwillingness to work is not the reason immigrant welfare use is high. The vast majority (95 percent) of immigrant households with children had at least one worker in 2009. But their low education levels mean that more than half of these working immigrant households with children still accessed the welfare system during 2009.
• Welfare use tends to be high for both new arrivals and established residents. In 2009, 60 percent of households with children headed by an immigrant who arrived in 2000 or later used at least one welfare program; for households headed by immigrants who arrived before 2000 it was 55 percent.
I think if we could actually close the border, and we could if we wanted to bad enough, this problem would fade away and we could decide what we want to do with the illegals here now without hysteria.
Securing the border only solves part of the problem. 40% of the illegal aliens came here legally and overstayed their visas. We need to track and deport visa overstays and shut off the job magnet.
