A Case Study: Illegal Immigration

by Congressman J. Randy Forbes

Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District 

-       There are anywhere from over 2,700 to 8,000 illegal immigrants arriving in the U.S. every day. (Read more: Overview of Annual Immigration FAIR)

-       Estimates of the net cost of immigration to taxpayers run from $30 billion to $50 billion a year. (Read more: Questions and Answers About Immigration FAIR)

-       The United States admits more legal immigrants every year than all the rest of the nations of the world combined. (Read more: Statement of Jan Ting to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, December 8, 2003 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States)

-       More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and that population is growing by 700,000 per year. (Read more: The Real Problem with Immigration…and the Real Solution Heritage Foundation)

-       Three out of every 100 people in America are undocumented, creating a profound security problem. (Read more: The Real Problem with Immigration…and the Real Solution Heritage Foundation)

-     In some hospitals, as much as two-thirds of total operating costs are for uncompensated care for illegal aliens. (Read more: The Sinking Lifeboat: Uncontrolled Immigration and the U.S. Healthcare System - Executive Summary FAIR)

-       The utilization rate of hospitals and clinics by illegal aliens (29 percent) is more than twice the rate of the overall U.S. population (11 percent). (Read more: Illegal Immigration and Public Health FAIR)

-       Uninsured illegal aliens cost $2.2 billion annually to the health care system. (Read More: The High Cost of Cheap Labor Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Center for Immigration Studies CIS)

Education:

-       The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states nearly $12 billion annually, and when the children born here to illegal aliens are added, the costs more than double to $28.6 billion. (Read more: Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red FAIR)

-       In Virginia, there was an estimated cost of $188.7 million spent on illegal alien children and $264.2 million spent on children born to illegal aliens. This brings the total cost to educate these children to $452.9 million. (Read more: Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red FAIR)

-       California spends an estimated $2.2 billion annually — more than any other state — to educate illegal immigrant children. (Read more: Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red FAIR)

Economy:

-     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. (Read more: The High Cost of Cheap Labor Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Center for Immigration Studies CIS)

-     The annual net cost of illegal immigrants to the American taxpayer is likely to be more than $45 billion today. (Read more: What's Wrong With Illegal Immigration? FAIR)

-     A study in 1996 of the costs of illegal immigration by Rice University economist, Dr. Donald Huddle, found that illegal aliens were displacing roughly 730,000 American workers every year, at a cost of about $4.3 billion a year. (Read more: What's Wrong With Illegal Immigration? FAIR)

-     For every 100 illegal aliens who find jobs in the U.S., 65 American workers are displaced. (Read more: What's Wrong With Illegal Immigration? FAIR)

-     Illegal aliens have created an underground economy estimated to be about $970 billion, or nearly 9% of the real economy, and it is not being taxed. (Read more: The Underground Economy: Illegal Immigrants and Others Working Off the Books Cost the U.S. Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Unpaid Taxes Wall Street Journal)

Public Assistance:

-       The cost of illegal aliens to Medicaid is said to be $2.5 billion annually. (Read more: The High Cost of Cheap Labor Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Center for Immigration Studies CIS)

-       Food assistance programs used by illegals such as food stamps, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and free school lunches cost $1.9 billion annually. (Read more: The High Cost of Cheap Labor Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Center for Immigration Studies CIS)

Crime:

-       Approximately 27.5 percent of all federal prisoners are criminal aliens (illegal aliens and legal aliens who are convicted of committing a crime). (Read more: Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Local Jails  GAO)

-       Illegal aliens sentenced in federal courts were more likely than legal aliens or U.S. citizens to have at least one prior conviction resulting in a sentence of at least 60 days. (Read more: Illegal Aliens in Federal, State, and Local Criminal Justice Systems Urban Institute)

-       In an April 2005 study, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in federal facilities increased from about 42,000 at the end of calendar year 2001 to about 49,000 at the end of calendar year 2004– a 15 percent increase. (Read more: Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Local Jails  GAO)

-       GAO estimated the federal cost of incarcerating criminal aliens totaled approximately $5.8 billion for calendar years 2001 through 2004. (Read more: Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Local Jails GAO)

-     In a population sample study of 55,322 illegal aliens completed in May 2005, GAO found that the aliens studied had been arrested approximately 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. (Read more: Information on Certain Illegal Aliens Arrested in the United States GAO)

-       I am opposed to amnesty; provisions in the Senate bill amount to amnesty. I am unequivocally opposed to the Senate bill in its current form.

-       Illegal immigration is a crime and we need to penalize those that break our laws.

-       Entry into the United States is not a right, but a privilege.

-       Illegal immigration seriously undermines legal immigration.

-       Illegal aliens often displace American workers, and by supplying cheap labor, they depress the wages and working conditions of the working poor in our country.

-       Our priority as a nation should be defending America’s borders and enforcing our laws, not accommodating those who break them.

-       We must fully staff our borders and close immigration loopholes.

-       I support making English the official language of the U.S.

-       To combat employers who hire illegal immigrants, I support increasing financial penalties to discourage this practice.

-       I support increasing penalties for alien smuggling.

-       We must provide our border sheriffs and federal law enforcement officers with the resources they need to combat illegal immigration.

-       I support building a fence along our border to discourage illegal immigration on our Southern border.

-       I am opposed to the current system of “catch and release” – we need to immediately deport illegals when they are caught at the border.

-       Comprehensive Immigration Reform - Cosponsored legislation to hold violators of immigration laws accountable, including employers who hire illegal aliens, those who smuggle human beings, and illegal aliens who are vicious gang members. (Read more:  H.R. 4437)

-       Border Patrol Agent Increases - Supported legislation to increase the current number of border patrol officers and triple the number of immigration enforcement agents to fully control the border. (Read more:  H.R. 4437)

-       Citizenship Reform Act – Cosponsored legislation to deny citizenship at birth to children born in the United States of parents who are not citizens or permanent resident aliens. (Read more: H.R. 698)

-       Troops on the Border – Cosponsored legislation to authorize the Secretary of Defense to assign members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps to assist the Department of Homeland Security in the performance of border protection functions. (Read more: H.R. 1986)

-       Security Fence for the Southern Border – Cosponsored legislation to create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. (Read more: H.R. 4083)

-       Empower Local Law Enforcement - Cosponsored legislation to allow state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws. (Read more: H.R. 3137)

-       Alien Gang Removal Act – Introduced legislation to designate aliens who are members of violent criminal gangs as an inadmissible and deportable class under the Immigration and Nationality Act. (Read more: H.R. 2933)

-       English Language Unity Act – Supported legislation that declares English as the official language of the United States and requires the official functions of the United States to be conducted in English. (Read more: H.R. 997)

-       Real ID Act – Cosponsored and voted for legislation that addresses border security and immigration reform provisions that were dropped from the 9/11 Commission legislation conference report. (Read more: H.R. 418)

-       Diversity Visa – Cosponsored legislation to eliminate the diversity visa immigrant program. (Read more:  H.R. 1219)

-       Matricula Consular Cards – Cosponsored legislation that would prohibit the federal government from accepting matricula consular cards as proof of identity. (Read more: H.R. 925)

-       Federal Contractor Security Act – Supported legislation to require federal contractors to participate in a pilot program for employment eligibility confirmation to prevent hiring illegal aliens especially in high-security or federal work. (Read more:  H.R. 2049)