Free Republic

Analysis of the latest Census data indicates Texas’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $4.7 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to more than $3.7 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden amounts to about $725 per Texas household headed by a native-born resident. This analysis looks specifically at the costs to the state for education, health care and incarceration resulting from illegal immigration. These three are the largest cost areas, and they are the same three...

Wildfires spark Congress timber debate 08/06/02 MICHAEL MILSTEIN Lawmakers are seizing on Oregon wildfires to push for stepped-up logging on the east side of the Cascades, causing environmental groups to suddenly back away from a bill they have long sought to protect old growth on the west side of the mountains. While some Republican lawmakers and the timber industry say this summer's wildfires expose the failing health of the drier east-side forests, many environmentalists say they fear that lawmakers may "sell out" those fire-prone forests while saving the oldest remaining trees on the wetter and battle-worn west side. "It's a...