Financial Impact Of Illegal Migration On US Taxpayers

By Frosty Wooldridge

Each day you go work, you pay taxes.  Those taxes pay for numerous programs that the Federal Government offers American citizens.  However, you also pay taxes for people who violate U.S. immigration laws by living and working in America illegally.   Thus, you pay for their children’s schooling, housing, food and medical care.  Why?  Answer: the Congress and President Obama refuse to internally enforce federal laws.

Thus, an estimated eight million illegal alien migrants work full time jobs in America.  Estimates show that half of them work off the books. America houses the second largest underground, non-taxpaying economy in the world with upwards of 12 to 20 million illegal alien workers. 

In the process, they displace America’s working poor to drive them into unemployment lines. Additionally, your tax dollars pay for the $80 billion annual food stamp program for the 47.7 million Americans who cannot secure jobs at a living wage.

Dr.Steve Camarota, assistant director at The Center for Immigration Studies, www.cis.org, tallied the costs to you as a taxpayer.

“This study is one of the first to estimate the total impact of illegal immigration on the

federal budget,” said Camarota.  “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.

For further information, you may contact Dr. Steve Camarota at www.cis.org

Join these organizations to empower you to stop mass immigration: www.CapsWeb.org; www.NumbersUSA.org; www.TheSocialContract.com; www.Fairus.org; www.Alipacus.com

Join me with Dave Chaffin, host of the Morning Zone at 650 AM, www.KGAB.com, Cheyenne, Wyoming every Monday 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., as we discuss my latest commentaries on immigration-environment.  You may stream the show on your computer. You may call in at: 1-888-503-6500.

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Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as eight times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. In 2012, he bicycled coast to coast across America.  He presents “The Coming Population Crisis facing America: what to do about it.”  www.frostywooldridge.com.  His latest book is: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, copies at 1 888 280 7715/ Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click:  www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Live well, laugh often, celebrate daily and enjoy the ride,

Frosty Wooldridge

Golden, Colorado

www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

6 Continent world bicycle traveler

Order these unique cards today: http://www.howtolivealifeofadventure.com/