Thread: Illegal Immigration Costs Texans $4.7 Billion/Year

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Illegal Immigration Costs Texans $4.7 Billion a Year Finds New Study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
Tuesday April 5, 4:23 pm ET

WASHINGTON, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Mass illegal immigration is costing Texas more than $4.65 billion a year finds a new report released today by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Texans, examines the fiscal costs being borne by the state to provide education, health care and incarceration for an illegal alien population now estimated to exceed 1.5 million.

Using a 1994 study published by the Urban Institute as a baseline, The Cost of Illegal Immigration to Texans looks at Census Bureau and other data to estimate the explosive growth in the size and cost of illegal immigration in the nation's second most populous state. In 2004, the annual fiscal burden of illegal immigration amounted to about $725 per Texas household headed by a native-born resident.

Among the report's key findings:

* Texas spends more than $4 billion a year to provide K-12 education
for the children of illegal aliens.

* These children account for nearly 12 percent of the total K-12 school
population.

* Taxpayer-funded medical outlays for health care provided to the
state's illegal alien population amount to about $520 million a year.

* The uncompensated cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in Texas's state
and county prisons amounts to at least $150 million a year.

The costs of other programs and services provided to illegal aliens, and the impact of mass illegal immigration on the jobs and wages of Texans who have been forced to compete against illegal immigrants are not included in FAIR's study, and would probably result in still higher costs to the state and its residents.

"In Texas, as in many other states, the phenomenon of mass illegal immigration is draining public coffers and robbing local residents of access to essential public services," observed Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "While every state and almost every community around the country is struggling to improve education and rein-in health care costs, our nation's failure to address rampant illegal immigration is compounding the problems that state and local governments face.

"All across the country, people are waking up to the reality that illegal immigration has become an enormously expensive phenomenon paid for by workers, taxpayers and schoolchildren," Stein continued. "If anyone would ask Texans if they want to subsidize more than a million illegal aliens to the tune of $4.65 billion a year, or see their public schools, hospitals and prisons overcrowded with illegal immigrants, the answer would be a resounding 'no.' Yet federal and state policies have failed to protect Texans from that burden and have forced them and other Americans to subsidize mass illegal immigration."

Here's a little detail from the Dallas area.

Originally Posted by Sherry Jacobson, Dallas Morning News, December 30

...Baylor...Presbyterian...and Methodist [hospitals]...foot the bill for $285 million...for indigent and uninsured...in 2003...taxpayers spent...$311 million...for nonpaying...treated at Parkland [hospital]...

...50 percent of indigent health care...provided by Parkland...Most...are taking a hit in the number of indigent patients......indigent patients...seek care at other hospitals...because the wait [here] is too long...indigent care problem...can't be solved by Parkland...alone...increased demand for indigent care...double-digit last year...continuing shift of indigent care to private hospitals...Hospital Costs

Originally Posted by Ed Skeen, Garland, TX, Letter to Dallas Morning News, January 10

Indigent and illegal
Re: "UT Southwestern, Parkland need support," Wednesday Letters.
The doctors made some good points, but when they wrote, "County taxpayers bear more cost for indigent health care," they left out "illegal." I am tired of the emergency room and admissions office not asking, "Are you a legal resident?" I want this to be a mandatory question for every person who comes in for treatment.

If the answer is no, that person gets emergency care and is advised to leave the country – and the former INS notified of the name and address on the admission slip. Indigent = Illegal?

Many of us in the southwest agree. A majority in Arizona agreed with Prop 200.