| Immigration: The New Third Rail |  |
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 9, 2004
Posted on 11/09/2004 3:44:38 AM PST by ovrtaxt
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It was the elephant in the living room and during the election nobody wanted to admit it was there, even though it represents one of the most serious threats to the future of America as we know it.
During the campaigns both parties shied away from even mentioning illegal immigration, despite the fact that it was uppermost in the minds of millions of Americans now paying the price for our government’s failure to get a grip on the scandal.
With an estimated 8 million illegal aliens now already here, thousands more are flocking across our southern borders and nobody in authority seems to have the vaguest notion of what to do about this onrushing flood inundating America’s border states.
This is an out-of-control problem which is bankrupting our infrastructure and our hospitals. In California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas, states are being bankrupted and we have to get tough on illegal immigration which is undermining the infrastructure that was erected to take care of the citizens of the United States.
Thanks to the flood of illegal aliens and the burden they are placing on this nation, American citizens are being increasingly denied the health care and the schooling they need because we are spending too much money on the illegals who, in a fit of political correctness, we are now expected to refer to with the less harsh description of "undocumented aliens."
According to a study issued in August, the Center for Immigration Studies - one of the first to estimate the impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget, based on Census Bureau data - households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government; costs at the state and local level are also likely to be significant.
The study also finds that if illegals were given amnesty, the fiscal burden at the federal level would grow to nearly $29 billion.
Among the findings:
• Illegal alien households are estimated to use $2,700 a year more in services than they pay in taxes, creating a total fiscal burden of nearly $10.4 billion on the federal budget in 2002.
• Among the largest federal costs: Medicaid ($2.5 billion); medical treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).
• If illegal aliens were “legalized” and began to pay taxes and use services like legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual fiscal deficit at the federal level would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total federal deficit of $29 billion.
• With nearly two-thirds of illegals lacking a high school diploma, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments — not their legal status or their unwillingness to work.
• Because many of the costs are due to their U.S.-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth, barring illegals themselves from federal programs will not significantly reduce costs.
The election is over and it’s now time to tackle the problem and get it under control before it controls us. We have emergency rooms closing every day in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas where they are being forced to take care of people who have absolutely no right to be here, instead of taking care of American citizens.
Our school systems and our hospitals are being bankrupted because of the increasing presence of illegal aliens swarming across our border. Over the next four years the president is going to have to get this disaster under control or those Republicans who voted for him in droves while holding their nose on the illegal immigration issue will not hold their noses two and four years from now.
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More here....
And we wonder why our health insurance is out of reach. Between this strain on our system and malpractice lawyers, the finest health care system on earth faces a serious threat.
ping list ping
Earlier this year, Bush had mentioned a plan about it but the Democrats have never mentioned anything about it. I think there are two things that can be done;
1. Encourage liberal Democrats to move to Mexico.
2. Enact laws to prevent illegals from the resources they use in America.
On "The John Ziegler Show" (KFI 640AM, LA 10pm-1am, M-F) I heard "The Arizona Republic" did an investigative piece using an American who has Mexican residency. He attempted to register to vote, to obtain government services and so on. In nearly all cases he was immediately asked if he was a citizen and/or had the proper documentation. Can you say HYPOCRASY, Mexico?
In case it flew under the radar, Powell and five or six other members of the Cabinet have been meeting with Vincente Fox this week. Here's Google News' coverage.
Border control is a facade, and our government is on the way to losing complete control of this to foreign hustlers and their ethnic counterparts already in America acting like the fifth column.
I'm not sure about the negative financial impact -- the Texas economy would crumble if all illegals suddenly disappeared overnight.
it is only "the finest healthcare system on earth" if you can afford it. Otherwise, it does not exist.
it would crumble for a day....until employers found out that they would have to pay their workers on the books and the "going rate"...yes, they would have to raise prices...but things would work out well for AMERICANS in the long run.
Illegals are a DRAG on the taxpayers of the US.
The best long-term answer is to tightly control our borders but the problem of existing illegals is much more complex. I don't have a good, easy answer -- and I don't support amnesty programs either.
In post 13 I should have said something like the "employers of the largest numbers of illegals" rather than the "vast amount of employers." Mom-and-pop businesses often don't care who they hire but major employers do care -- yet they still end up hiring high percentages of illegals.
The easy answer is to end all these benefits they get paid for by US taxpayers. Give them 6 months to get their affairs in order and when the $ stop they either work or go home. Isn't that what we're told any way?....."all they want to do is come here and work". Also, I can just imagine the welfare fraud is out of control, especially in places like Dallas and Houston with the use of multiple ID's. Any more, when police are looking for an illegal they announced their given name plus all the aliases they go by.
For example, requiring solid proof of citizenship before interacing with the government. Let's see how long the lines get at the DMV then.
Stuff your PC BS!
They were wetbacks 60 years ago and are still wetbacks today.
My belief is that it doesn't matter if it's mom & pop store or a large fast food chain, if a business thinks it can get away with paying "minimal wages" to employees knowing full well the taxpayers will be socked with the rest of their living expenses for food, medical, etc. the result will continued loss of jobs for Americans, depressing of wages overall and more new welfare cases......hardly a recipe for a vibrant economy.
Add to that the fact that many employers now can EVADE numerous state and federal payroll taxes thus shifting more of the burden onto those businesses still trying to do it the right way. To insult to injury do we see a real savings on goods and services? Of course not, builders in Tx. have been using illegals for years, saving all kinds of $ on wages and taxes yet have prices on new homes stabilized at all?.....I think not. When we think about it......how really stupid is it to spend billions of our tax $ on people who nothing about this country then turn around and borrow billions to spend on our own infrastructure (schools, roads, etc.)?.....thus putting our children in the position of having to deal with unfathomable levels of public debt in the future.
BTTT
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