California's Illegal Aliens Cost Taxpayers Nearly $9 Billion A Year

FAIR has released their latest report on the costs of illegal aliens to taxpayers. The main costs are in education, health care and prison costs for illegal aliens in jail.

North County Times

California's nearly 3 million illegal immigrants cost taxpayers nearly $9 billion each year, according to a new report released last week by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes stricter immigration policies.

Educating the children of illegal immigrants is the largest cost, estimated at $7.7 billion each year, according to the report. Medical care for illegal immigrants and incarceration of those who have committed crimes are the next two largest expenses measured in the study, the author said.

...

Jack Martin, who wrote the report, said Thursday that the $9 billion figure does not include other expenses that are difficult to measure, such as special English instruction, school lunch programs, and welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal immigrant workers.

"It's a bottom of the range number," Martin said.

FAIR drew from the U.S. Census report and other sources. This study matches an earlier study By the Center for Immigration Reform (CIS) that I reported on (see: "Latest Report: Illegal Aliens Cost Taxpayers $10 Billion A Year" from Sep. 4, 2004). Of course you can't do any straight reporting on this issue without having some pro illegal alien advocate group playing the race card once again to justify the illegal behavior of these people who suck dry our tax system and run emergency rooms into bankruptcy.
Gerardo Gonzalez, director of Cal State San Marcos' National Latino Research Center, which compiles data on Latinos, criticized the report. He said it does not measure some of the contributions that immigrants make to the state's economy.

"Beyond taxes, these workers' production and spending contribute to California's economy, especially the agricultural sector," Gonzalez said.

Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are the backbone of the state's nearly $28 billion-a-year agricultural industry, Gonzalez and other researchers say.

More than two-thirds of the estimated 340,000 agriculture workers in California are noncitizens, most of whom are believed to be illegal immigrants, according to a 1998 study on farmworkers prepared for the state Legislature.

Local farmers say migrant farmworkers are critical to their businesses, and without them they would have to close their farms or move their operations overseas.

These advocate groups really don't have a leg to stand on. The only arguments they ever try to use is racism or that all these fact based reports are wrong and that the production of these illegal aliens is higher than if a legal worker earning a decent wage and didn't require all the tax sucking benefits.
Martin disagrees. He said illegal immigrants displace American workers by taking low-skilled jobs, keep wages low by creating an overabundance of workers and stifle innovation by reducing the need for mechanized labor.

"The product of the illegal immigrant is not included (in the report) because if that is an essential product it will get done one way or another," Martin said. Employers "would have to pay better wages or invest money on mechanization."

Martin's study looks specifically at the costs of educating illegal immigrants' children, providing medical care to illegal immigrants and jailing those convicted of committing crimes. The report estimates the total cost at $10.5 billion each year, but that is offset by about $1.7 billion in taxes that illegal immigrants pay.

OK, sounds pretty backed up by facts. Sounds reasonable. So what could the advocates for illegal aliens possibly say about this report and its facts?
"I think FAIR is without doubt an extremist organization that tries to portray itself as a mainstream group," said Christian Ramirez, director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, an advocate group for legal and illegal immigrants.
Good rebuttal there by a representative for illegal aliens.

The article goes on to break down the numbers in the report further. Go read it for specific numbers. One that stands out though is the estimated $7.7 billion in education spending for illegal alien children. Having kid in Californian schools I can attest to the huge class sizes, low student-to-teacher interaction and the extraordinary amount of time wasted on those students who can't speak English fluently enough. So while the dollar number is $7.7 billion, the overall costs to actual legal citizens of this country's children who pay for these schools is immeasurable.

Martin said states bear most of the cost of illegal immigration.

"State costs are much higher on a per capita basis because of the fact that the largest expenses are medical care and education and those are borne at the local level, not the federal," Martin said.

In this time of California's budget crisis this should be priority one in reducing expenses in the state.

Tipped by: La Shawn Barber. Go read her take on the report and some of the comments at her entry.

Crossposted to The Command Post

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Posted by Digger on December 8, 2004 01:54 AM (Permalink)
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Yep, I could have told you that [non-English-speaking] illegal aliens in the classroom are a drain on educational resources. I was a middle school teacher in central California (ground-zero for the illegal alien invasion) for two years. I had several students who couldn't speak English, and the cost to our district to provide translators and special curriculum and materials in Spanish must have been through the roof.

But, of course, we can't deny them the right to be be educated at taxpayers' expense, now can we? That would be unconstitutional (according to illegal alien lovers around the country).

The issue of illegal aliens is my hot button topic. If you check out my blog, you'd see that I'm just as passionate about this as you are. It comforts me to know that there are other people out there who are also passionate about deporting illegal aliens and denying all public and social services to them, especially when those services are paid for by the hardworking, legally-residing (that means legal residents and citizens) taxpayers of California and the U.S.


Posted by: Doggy Diaries at December 8, 2004 09:17 AM


Thanks for the link, Digger!


Posted by: LB at December 8, 2004 04:09 PM


I am forced to think hard as to your level of education... Do you know that most undocumented 'illegal' immigrants actually PAY TAXES? not only that, the vast majority of them do NOT REQUEST A TAX REFUND, therefore many of 'them illegals' may be actually paying for YOUR KIDS' EDUCATION and your medical care. Let's not forget that this country would go STALE if we would go on and deport 'illegal immigrants, but let's assume we want to do it, then i suggest imposing not only fines, but criminal penalties on employers, who, lats time I checked are the ones making the buck and getting the tax cuts under this hick RED government. Please note that I used the word 'RED' to trigger your idiotic under-educated fears of communism and relate it to your favorite party (I know most of you are ignorant Republican -hence the donkey- beasts, that don't understant that the Republican plan only works for the VERY rich). Go to school again, but this time PAY ATTENTION!! You are not inherently intelligent because your mommy and daddy were Irish, German, British or Dutch: ooops! I guess MOST OF OUR FAMILIES were at one time or another IMMIGRANTS. By the way, have you heard the accent of an elementary school Potato famine victim 150 years ago? that would be pretty hard to understand.


Posted by: Ruben at July 4, 2005 10:58 AM


In regard to prosecuting employers, if a law were made making it illegal to hire illegal aliens, then employers that hired illegals in the past could not be prosecuted due ex post facto, which is a constitutional provision. If you don't know what that is...google it. By the way, yes we have immigrant relations, however the wording you used was immigrant, not illegal immigrant as I recall. If you read the article it also mentioned that illegals paid some taxes, but that did not even near what they owed and were taking away. Many of the illegals do not claim this country as their own and claim to be mexicans, which is acceptable, however, they want the right to vote, which is not acceptable. By the way do you know how many mexicans in general serve in the military? 10%...that is, Hispanics, so maybe 3\4 are mexican lets say, how many are illegal do you think. Probably two or three, if that. If they want to be involved in our politics, they can help us out with the war since there are so many of them.


Posted by: desert_rat at November 13, 2006 08:16 PM


"In regard to prosecuting employers, if a law were made making it illegal to hire illegal aliens, then employers that hired illegals in the past could not be prosecuted due ex post facto,which is a constitutional provision.

There's already laws on the books they just aren't being enforced.


Posted by: Digger at November 13, 2006 09:08 PM


I think all of of your comments are said to bennifit the illeagl immigrants not our economy. what are we gunna do when their is 50million illegal immigrants, lying about social security numbers, screwing the goverment one at a time.


Posted by: Joe Wicker at December 3, 2007 04:59 PM


It should be illegal for politicians who are pretending to serve the American public that do not enact legislation that would stop the waste of billions of hard working taxpayers dollars every year on schooling non-American citizens. We should take the money from lawmakers pay checks to pay for every illegal who receives an education in the Untied States. If politicians had to pay out of their families pockets for people who are draining our country of money and resources we don't have to give, things would change. Politicians that don't show they care about the people who pay their salaries should forfeit their pay as penalty for failing to serve and protect Americans instead of cutting off the money we spend on illegal immigration every year. Guaranteed the problem would be solved within one session of congress. They can get together to enact a economic stimulus package so quickly,then they can make laws to stop illegals from receiving education, jobs, medical and housing benefits reserved for true taxpaying American families.


Posted by: J Jackson at February 3, 2008 01:11 AM


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