Thread: Illegal immigrants cost Florida $700M a year

Matt Reed: Illegal immigrants cost Florida $700M a year
January 25, 2011

How much do illegal immigrants cost Florida schools, hospitals and other important institutions every year?



Remember this number: $700 million.

Stick that to the fridge, e-mail it to friends or mention it at the next town hall meeting. No other credible estimate exists. So I tracked down studies and government data, crunched the numbers and arrived at $700 million as the gross costs of education, prisons and unreimbursed health care in Florida.

Yes, that's a fraction of the billions cited in 2009 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in a report that targeted all immigrants and has since been debunked. But it's a significant cost nonetheless, amounting to $37 per Floridian.

Consider that the amount spent to educate "unauthorized" children could pay for Florida's entire voluntary prekindergarten system or operate Brevard Public Schools for a year. Our prisons spent more to house illegal immigrants in 2010 than the Legislature spent on the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, state records show.

And note that the $700 million does not include costs incurred by county jails, state child-welfare agencies or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"There are occasions when we hold someone," Brevard jail Commander Susan Jeter told me Monday. Brevard temporarily held five illegal immigrants in 2010 for a cost of $317. "That's reasonable," Jeter said.
Still, I confidently rounded up my estimate from $696,142,430.

Adding up
Subtotals behind that figure:
Public education for illegal-immigrant children: $548.88 million per year. That does not include U.S.-born children of undocumented parents. Data from the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center indicate that Florida has 60,750 school age children who are foreign-born, unauthorized immigrants. Multiply that population by per-pupil spending of $9,035 in Florida, as last reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
State prisons: $107.07 million per year. The Department of Corrections this month reported 5,641 "confirmed aliens" in its facilities. Multiply that by the average cost per inmate of $18,980 per year, as cited by the National Institute of Corrections.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/201 ... 00M-a-year

There is more to the above article.
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(continued from above)
Unpaid health care: $40.2 million per year. That somewhat dated figure comes directly from a Florida Hospital Association survey in 2003 of 39 member hospitals and health systems. It includes care provided by private and tax-supported hospitals. But all hospitals cover their losses on illegal immigrants by tapping public funds or raising prices for citizens who have private insurance. Either way, you pay.

Taxes paid?
Keep in mind, illegal workers can offset some of their costs by paying taxes.

Although employers hire them mainly to avoid wage and tax laws, about half provide fake visas or social security numbers, meaning some contribute payroll taxes under someone else's name, a federal audit found. Almost all pay sales taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office in 2007 reviewed data from across the country and found that in a few western states, payments by illegal immigrants covered roughly half their annual cost.

In Florida, that could mean a net cost of roughly $350 million -- about the cost of operating the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, including the Highway Patrol, in 2011.

"Even though unauthorized immigrants pay taxes and other fees to state and local jurisdictions," the CBO report says, "the resulting revenues offset only a portion of the costs . . . related to education, health care and law enforcement."

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6027--0-0.html

You Florida Politicians that push for this shit ... you better put on your best costume and go stand on a corner... you got 700 Million dollars to make up and that was just for last year

Its time to get busy making and returning the money the best way you can