The High Cost of Illegal Immigration to America

With the illegal immigration debate raging here in Utah, not to mention--America, I have been combing reports, both governmental and private, to determine the true cost to America and the state,s if illegal immigrants are given a pass and the floodgates opened wide.

I, for one, believe the disastrous results will forever damage what is left of this great nation I love so dearly. It is a fight I have not given up, nor will I ever. And really, it has not been an easy battle. I am not a woman without compassion, but I am also a woman who believes in the rule of law, which illegal immigrants do not. I have been embroiled in conversation on my Facebook page that seem to be circular in argument. However, one cannot dispute the costs associated with illegal immigration to America. Between the costs to education, healthcare, entitlements, criminal justice, and the loss of American jobs it is a problem that has to be addressed and simply cannot be kicked down the road any longer.

The Center for Immigration Studies has done an incredible study on the costs of illegal immigration at both the state and federal levels. I have dived in and am devouring this thing, plus a couple of others. Here is the executive summary of that report:

The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget

This study is one of the first to estimate the total impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Most previous studies have focused on the state and local level and have examined only costs or tax payments, but not both. Based on Census Bureau data, this study finds that, when all taxes paid (direct and indirect) and all costs are considered, illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion in 2002. We also estimate that, if there was an amnesty for illegal aliens, the net fiscal deficit would grow to nearly $29 billion.

Among the findings:

• Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.
• Among the largest costs are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).
• With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, 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 heavy use of most social services.
• On average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households.
• Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth. Thus, greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.
• If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion.
• Costs increase dramatically because unskilled immigrants with legal status -- what most illegal aliens would become -- can access government programs, but still tend to make very modest tax payments.
• Although legalization would increase average tax payments by 77 percent, average costs would rise by 118 percent.
• The fact that legal immigrants with few years of schooling are a large fiscal drain does not mean that legal immigrants overall are a net drain -- many legal immigrants are highly skilled.
• The vast majority of illegals hold jobs. Thus the fiscal deficit they create for the federal government is not the result of an unwillingness to work.
• The results of this study are consistent with a 1997 study by the National Research Council, which also found that immigrants' education level is a key determinant of their fiscal impact.

to read the rest of this report, which is excellent, please go here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved by Candace E. Salima.

Utah Faces an Uncertain Future

The illegal immigration debate is raging across the nation. Arizona, at the forefront of this debate, is doing everything right in order to restore financial stability and safety to its state. On the other hand, Utah just sold its citizens down the river. The illegal aliens living with our state, breaking law after law (a felony to cross our border illegal, a misdemeanor to stay, a felony to purchase fraudulent and stolen I.D., a felony to open a bank account with that I.D., and a felony to get gainful employment with that same I.D. and the signing of the I-9), have been given a pass on all their crimes, raping of our economy, schools and healthcare system and patted on the head and told, you can stay and live in a social sub-class and never mind about all those pesky crimes.

The Utah State Legislature passed, and our governor signed into law, conflicting legislation in regards to illegal immigration in our state. H.B. 116, now law, violates the U.S. Constitution, the Utah Constitution, and, the state Republican Party platform that the bulk of these legislators and our governor belong to. But they passed the legislation and signed it into law anyway.

The people of this state begged our governor and legislature to not repeat the mistakes of California, but they did it anyway. Militants within the Mexican community are determined to destroy America and take back what they say is theirs. It isn't, but stupidity seems reign supreme in that group. Utah just surrendered without a shot, despite:

A petition signed by 4,500 Utahns asking Governor Gary R. Herbert to veto H.B. 116.

Stacks of letters, faxes, emails, phone calls and text messages asking, first: the Utah State Legislature to not pass H.B. 116 and then the Governor to veto it. We were ignored in favor of these people padding their pockets with a cheaper workforce and criminals walking the streets with a pass.

90+ state Republican delegates, myself included, meeting personally with Governor Gary R. Herbert and respectfully pointing out to him where in the law it violated everything I mentioned above, and him blowing us off in favor of the illegal aliens. (We represented nearly 90,000 voting Utahns and we were summarily dismissed out of hand.) His response to us? "Well, Ronald Reagan granted amnesty too." He, of course, left out the part where President Reagan came to bitterly regret extending amnesty because it did nothing to deal with the problem.

People calling radio shows, mine included, expressing great frustration and fear of what our legislature and governor were doing.

Legal immigrants gathering and petitioning the legislature and governor to please not do this.

And how did the Speaker of the House respond to all this:

"House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart said she was proud of lawmakers who "rolled up their sleeves" and took on one of most vexing issues of the day amid intense criticism from people "who had no answers of their own."" (DesNews) Rebecca Lockhart voted "yes" on H.B. 116.

We had no solutions of our own? What the hell! Can she really be that phenomenally stupid or is she being deliberately ignorant?

The solutions we offered, over and over, were:

Rep. Chris Herrod's E-Verify Bill

Rep. Carl Wimmer's Instate Tuition Bill

Rep. Steve Sandstrom's Immigration Enforcement Bill

Before they were all slaughtered, detoothed and defanged by the Utah Senate.

In addition, here are my own solutions to solving the illegal alien problem in Utah:

1) Enforce immigration laws on the books.

2) Punish businesses who hire illegal aliens with huge fines for the first offense and prison for the second.

3) Cut off all education opportunities for illegal aliens in the state.

4) Cut off all welfare (unemployment benefits, food stamps, free healthcare) for illegal aliens in the state.

5) Revoke all drivers licenses for illegal aliens in the state.

The bulk of these people will deport themselves, at no cost to the state, in a hurry. No jobs. No money. No education. No healthcare. They'll leave, believe me!

I give you Arizona. Since implementing their strong immigration law in that state, the numbers in their prisons have dropped, illegal aliens (according to home moving companies) are leaving in droves, day and night, all heading to Salt Lake City and Seattle according to the manifests.

To the citizens of Utah, if you want to see the future just handed us by our Governor and Legislature, look to the west. California, over $80 billion in the red, is the prime example of where we are heading.

So to 7.5% unemployed in Utah? Your state government just told you to go to hell.

So to the 50,000+ children whose identities have been stolen, your state government, including your attorney general, have told you to go to hell.

So to the hospitals overburdened by the unpaying illegal alien, and their numbers are legion, your state government just consigned you to a financial hell which will only grow in the years to come.

So to the schools, currently overburdened by children who cannot speak English, your state just told you suck it up, make it work and to hell with the legal citizens of this state whose children deserve a decent education.

Representative Carl Wimmer said of the legislative session which just concluded here in Utah:

"I am quite disappointed. I have never seen our state government cause as much damage as it has this past 50 days. HB116 (The Amnesty Bill) was signed today. The biggest problem with it? We are a welfare state/nation, every illegal immigrant child will get "free" education, every illegal immigrant will get "free" health care at the hospital. Eventually we will run out of "free money" to redistribute."

Here are the legislators who fought the good fight and lost:

UT 7 Rep. Ryan Wilcox Republican N

UT 10 Rep. Dixon Pitcher Republican N

UT 12 Rep. Richard Greenwood Republican N

UT 13 Rep. Paul Ray Republican N

UT 14 Rep. Curtis Oda Republican N

UT 15 Rep. Brad Wilson Republican N

UT 19 Rep. Jim Nielson Republican N

UT 24 Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck Democratic N

UT 28 Rep. Brian King Democratic N

UT 32 Rep. Fred Cox Republican N

UT 39 Rep. Jim Dunnigan Republican N

UT 45 Rep. Steven Eliason Republican N

UT 47 Rep. Ken Ivory Republican N

UT 50 Rep. Merlynn Newbold Republican N

UT 51 Rep. Gregory Hughes Republican N

UT 52 Rep. Carl Wimmer Republican N

UT 55 Rep. John Mathis Republican N

UT 56 Rep. Kenneth Sumsion Republican N

UT 58 Rep. Stephen Sandstrom Republican N

UT 61 Rep. Keith Grover Republican N

UT 62 Rep. Christopher Herrod Republican N

UT 63 Rep. Dean Sanpei Republican N

UT 65 Rep. Francis Gibson Republican N

UT 69 Rep. Christine Watkins Democratic N

UT 71 Rep. Brad Last Republican N

UT 73 Rep. Michael Noel Republican N

UT 74 Rep. David Clark Republican N

UT 75 Rep. Don Ipson Republican N

And these are the ones who sold Utah down the river on Utah's H.B. 116

UT 1 Rep. Ronda Menlove Republican Y

UT 2 Rep. Lee Perry Republican Y

UT 3 Rep. Jack Draxler Republican Y

UT 4 Rep. David Butterfield Republican Y

UT 5 Rep. R. Webb Republican Y

UT 6 Rep. Brad Galvez Republican Y

UT 9 Rep. Jeremy Peterson Republican Y

UT 11 Rep. Brad Dee Republican Y

UT 17 Rep. Julie Fisher Republican Y

UT 18 Rep. Roger Barrus Republican Y

UT 16 Rep. Stephen Handy Republican Y

UT 20 Rep. Rebecca Edwards Republican Y

UT 21 Rep. Douglas Sagers Republican Y

UT 22 Rep. Susan Duckworth Democrat Y

UT 23 Rep. Jennifer Seelig Democrat Y

UT 25 Rep. Joel Briscoe Democrat Y

UT 26 Rep. David Litvack Democrat Y

UT 29 Rep. Janice Fisher Democrat Y

UT 30 Rep. Jackie Biskupski Democrat Y

UT 31 Rep. Larry Wiley Democrat Y

UT 33 Rep. Neal Hendrickson Democrat Y

UT 34 Rep. Johnny Anderson Republican Y

UT 35 Rep. Mark Wheatley Democrat Y

UT 36 Rep. Patrice Arent Democrat Y

UT 37 Rep. Carol Moss Democrat Y

UT 38 Rep. Eric Hutchings Republican Y

UT 40 Rep. Lynn Hemingway Democrat Y

UT 41 Rep. Todd Kiser Republican Y

UT 42 Rep. Jim Bird Republican Y

UT 43 Rep. Wayne Harper Republican Y

UT 44 Rep. Tim Cosgrove Democrat Y

UT 46 Rep. Marie Poulson Democrat Y

UT 48 Rep. LaVar Christensen Republican Y

UT 49 Rep. Derek Brown Republican Y

UT 54 Rep. Kraig Powell Republican Y

UT 57 Rep. Holly Richardson Republican Y

UT 59 Rep. Val Peterson Republican Y

UT 60 Rep. Bradley Daw Republican Y

UT 64 Rep. Rebecca Lockhart Republican Y

UT 67 Rep. Patrick Painter Republican Y

UT 68 Rep. Bill Wright Republican Y

UT 70 Rep. Kay McIff Republican Y

UT 72 Rep. Evan Vickers Republican Y

UT 66 Rep. Michael Morley Republican NV (Not voting, excused or absent)

UT 27 Rep. John Dougall Republican NV

UT 8 Rep. Gage Froerer Republican NV

UT 53 Rep. Melvin Brown Republican NV

Senators Curtis Bramble and Luz Robles fought hard for H.B. 116. Intimidating and blackmailing other legislators into voting for H.B. 116. 

And last, but not least, Governor Gary R. Herbert, whom I supported in the last election, signed H.B. 116 into law. He has lost my support, as well as my vote.

Because these people have done this, it is my opinion, and one I will put my effort behind, that each of these people need to be replaced in the next election. Seriously, how many times do we have to be kicked in the teeth before we start kicking back.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved by Candace E. Salima.