Cutting services to illegal immigrants isn’t easy

By Michael Gardner
Originally published April 19, 2011 at 2:23 p.m., updated April 19, 2011 at 7:21 p.m.

About this series

State Budget Watch is a project to give readers a deeper understanding of the scope, impact and reasons behind California’s fiscal problems, and to explore the stakes involved in potential solutions. The project includes Sacramento reporters Michael Gardner of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Brian Joseph of the Orange County Register and editor Daniel Weintraub of California Health Report, a website that focuses on health and public policy issues in the state.

Sacramento — As Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers wrestle with the state budget crisis, some Californians say that much of the problem can be laid at the feet of people who are in the country illegally.

Their message is: stop teaching the kids, cutoff welfare checks and ship the prisoners back home.

Billions of dollars spent on services could be put to work cutting the deficit, they say, paying for vital programs and keeping tax increases at bay.

But that’s easier said than done.

Court rulings require California to teach every child regardless of citizenship. Ditto for treating emergency cases in the hospital. All children born in this country are citizens, so counties are required to provide cash aid and other services, even if their parents are here illegally. And the federal government has been pretty stingy when it comes to reimbursing states for the rising tab, even though immigration is a federal responsibility.

California is home to more undocumented immigrants than any other state. There were nearly 2.6 million here in 2010, according to the Department of Homeland Security. More than half are from Mexico.

With so many here, there is certainly a case to be made that taxpayers cover billions of dollars in illegal immigrant costs, mostly for classrooms, hospitals and prisons.

But there also is a case to be made that, while here, many illegal immigrants pay into the system, including sales, property and income taxes. Many paychecks are docked for Social Security that likely will never be collected.

There have been a handful of comparative studies, but none has been received as definitive.

The conservative-leaning Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California’s bill is $21.75 billion when accounting for all state and federal spending.

In California, a study by the nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst was not as broad, keeping its research focused on the state’s largest program costs.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office pegs the state’s costs at $4.2 billion. But even then, some information is imprecise, mostly because accurate figures are hard to come by and the report’s reach was limited. That figure doesn’t include any offset of taxes they may pay.

The state faces a deficit of about $15.4 billion, with a general fund of $85 billion.

Deputy Legislative Analyst Dan Carson, who tracks the issue, said it is impossible to pinpoint how much could be saved, given legal constraints.

In many instances “you need federal and courtâ€