We as Americans are faced with the insurmountable costs of providing education, welfare and healthcare to children birthed in America by illegal immigrants. Tempted by the “American Dream,” female illegal immigrants have been known to deliberately cross our border in order to give birth to an ‘anchor baby’ to stay in the U.S. In addition, every mother that gives birth to an anchor baby in an American hospital has no medical fees. Why? Because our laws dictate that our hospitals cannot turn away anyone in need of medical help, regardless of citizenship.
In Parkland Memorial Hospital Dallas, the second busiest maternity ward in the United States, 70% of the women giving birth were illegal aliens. That added up to 11,200 babies for which Medicaid kicked in 34.5 million dollars to deliver these babies, the feds another 9.5 million and Dallas taxpayers tossed in 31.3 million. The average illegal patient is 25 years and giving birth to her second anchor baby. [Reiniers]
In addition, apart for the medical costs, there are the welfare costs.
“Last year in Los Angeles County alone, the anchor babies of illegal aliens cost taxpayers a whopping $600 million just in welfare costs.” [Schlussel]
Now consider educating children of illegal immigrants, each of these children receive free education provided by taxpayers. It is estimated that every child costs approximately $9,666 dollar to educate from grade K-12. That means that the cost of educating 3.3 million children of illegal immigrants amounts to $31.9 billion dollars. The costs don’t stop there; each school is burdened with a mandatory ELM program which amounts to approximately $3.9 billion a year. Then also consider that every illegal immigrant child who benefits from welfare also receives “$5.00 for 'free' breakfasts and lunches X's 180 school days equals: $5.42 billion annually.” [Department of Education]
All of these cost amount to one question. Who is paying for it? The painful reality is that you and I are. Every citizen in the U.S. pays for all of these costs through taxes so that illegal immigrants can have the luxury of the American dream without paying the price.
By Chandra Charette
It has been argued that Illegal immigrants cancel out the $113 billion deficit as a result of being in our Country through payment of Social Security, Medicare, and Federal Tax that is automatically withdrawn from their paycheck. The Social Security Administration estimates that “about three-quarters of illegal workers pay taxes that contribute to the overall solvency of Social Security and Medicare.” This information is based on the findings of the IRS, “One indicator is the 9 million W-2 forms with mismatched names and Social Security numbers it received in 2004. The IRS said the W-2 forms with invalid Social Security numbers reported about $53 billion in wages and about three-fourths of that, $40 billion in wages, had taxes withheld.”
The Reality: Although the theory that illegal immigrants earn their keep is splattered all over the internet, I have yet to find any studies or statistical data that can prove it. The closest answer I was able to find came from MSNBC
“Illegal immigrants are paying taxes to Uncle Sam, experts agree. Just how much they pay is hard to determine because the federal government doesn't fully tally it. But the latest figures available indicate it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year. One rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per Year.” [MSNBC]
The Reality: Although illegal immigrants do in fact contribute to our economy, it is very apparent that the numbers fall short of the deficit they cause. In addition, rough estimates aren’t real answers and they even state that the federal government can’t truly tally the amount going into our system. But for the sake of argumentation let’s presume just for the moment that this is in fact a viable claim. Keep in mind, illegal immigrants cannot tap into our social security benefits because they are operating under falsified/stolen identities, so this money remains in the hands of American citizens. Had this theory proven to be true, I would be obliged to agree that in this specific case, illegal immigrants do in fact positively benefit the economy. But one must look at the big picture. Yes, our social security system appears to be in a fantastic state. But one must recognize that this money isn’t redistributed across other sectors of our economy to counter balance the negative effects of illegal immigrants living within our borders.
We are currently faced with a continuously growing list of costs. For example, “The (FAIR) report found that the federal government paid $28.6 billion in illegal related costs, and state and local governments paid $84.2 billion on an estimated 12 million undocumented residents.” (Sixx, 1) Social security isn’t going to be covering these costs, we as tax payers will. Going into greater detail;
v Urban Institute studies found that illegal immigrants consume about $445 million in Medicaid funds. (Edmondson, 1)
v In 1994, 74,987 anchor babies in California hospital maternity units cost $215 million and constituted 36 percent of all Medi-Cal births. Now (2005) they account for substantially more than half. (Cosman, 2)
v Urban Institute studies found that “Illegal aliens in prison cost about $471 million a year.” (Sixx, 1)
v FAIR reports that“… $52 billion [is] spent on schooling the children of illegals. “Nearly all those costs are absorbed by state and local governments,” (Sixx, 1)
The point I am trying to make here is that despite the rise in funding for SSC/Medicaid/Federal government, there are still sectors of our economy that are in a deficit as a result of illegal immigrants. Sure, my children will have the reassurance of social security; meanwhile, hospitals will be closing their doors because of the high cost of providing healthcare to illegal immigrants.
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