Thread: Report: Mass Deportation Could Cost Texas Billions

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Report: Mass Deportation Could Cost Texas Billions

• by Julián Aguilar
• August 30, 2012

A study released Thursday by the Center for American Progress concludes that the Texas economy would suffer a net economic loss in the billions if group deportations of illegal immigrants occurred at even moderate levels.

The progressive think tank concluded that even if as few as 15 percent of Texans living in the state illegally were removed at once, it would mean an annual $11.7 billion loss for Texas’ gross state product, increasing to more than $77 billion if all 1.65 million estimated illegal immigrants were removed from the state.

There are currently 24.3 million Texans, about 6.8 percent of whom are illegal immigrants, according to the center, which uses 2010 population estimates by the American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau. It also uses data from the Pew Hispanic Center to determine the illegal immigrant population.

The study also estimates that removing the illegal immigrants would result in a loss of about $14.5 billion in annual tax revenue for the state, about 7.6 percent of the total tax revenue. Legal immigrants contribute about $18.4 billion in tax revenue.

The center said the purpose was to provide a “shock analysis” — an estimate to spell out in black-and-white terms what the effects of hardline deportation policies could be.


“This so-called shock analysis is difficult in that there is no magic wand that can be waved that says, ‘Okay, well 15 percent of the workforce is gone or 100 percent of the workforce is now legal,” said Marshall Fitz, the center’s director of immigration policy. “Both are going to take processes that take time, and the way this analysis works is it has to be a snapshot basis.”

The purpose of the study, Fitz added, is to say, “If that’s really your goal then look what your goal is, your goal would create this huge hole in the state economy.”

The center’s data comes in an election year in which immigration, legal and illegal, and its effect on the economy have been thrust into the spotlight as unemployment remains steady and illegal immigration in the country continues to decline.

It also comes on the heels of the Obama administration’s deferred action policy initiative that would allow certain immigrants in the country illegally to apply for legal work authorization and a two-year reprieve from deportation proceedings. The president said in June it was a “stopgap” measure until Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform, but some groups are expressing discontent at the number of work permits that could be granted as a result of the policy.

Targeting the issue of creating a larger workforce is NumbersUSA, which describes itself as a coalition of “moderates, conservatives and liberals working for immigration numbers that serve America's finest goals.” In a news release Tuesday, it announced a media blitz during the national Republican and Democratic conventions. The goal is to highlight that 1.5 million bachelor's degree holders in the country 25 or younger, 54 percent of the overall total, were unemployed or underemployed in 2011.

“Both political parties have had a tin ear to the plight of America's kids — and their parents — who have gone to the effort and expense to gain a college education but encountered an economy unable to use them," NumbersUSA President Roy Beck said in a prepared statement. "The job picture is even worse for young Americans with only a high school degree. The last thing our graduates need right now is more job competition."

In the Center for American Progress’ study, however, author and UCLA professor Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda posits that legalizing illegal immigrants would actually be a job creator and a boon to the state’s economy.

“Undocumented immigrant workers earn about 18 percent less in wages than legal workers. A program that required all undocumented immigrants to earn legal status would increase employment compensation and employment in the state by closing the wage gap between documented and undocumented workers,” he writes, estimating that wages in the state could increase by about $9.7 billion.

Legalization would also create about 193,000 jobs, Fitz said, because of increased spending that would result in a need to hire personnel to meet demand in industries like retail, construction and automotive.

“Should immigrants be advantaged over U.S. citizens or undocumented immigrants over legal permanent residents? Absolutely not, but it begs the question: What do you do to make the economy better for everybody, and is it better for everybody to try to remove these people?” he said. “Or is it better to try and put them on legal footing where their wages go up?”

Report: Mass Deportation Could Cost Texas Billions — Economy | The Texas Tribune

America must accept that consequences are natural results of decisions to act or not acting. The consequences of the1986 experiment with amnesty are quite clear now and the costs of that experiment must be accepted. If not accepted now those costs get larger and more complex. That is evident from the experiences of 26 years of history on this subject.

The full study can be found at http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-c.../08/Texas1.pdf . It is so biased as to be almost laughable. It considers only the benefits lost by deporting IAs and the benefits gained but legealizing them. It totally ignores the savings due to deporting IAs and the costs of legalizing them.

Just One Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas , Texas is a fairly famous institution and for a variety of reasons:

1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after
3. Jack Ruby-who killed Oswald, died there a few years later.

On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That’s almost 44 per day—every day)!
A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants. That’s 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas !!!

According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.

The average patient in Parkland in maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal immigrant. By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay.

OK, fine. That doesn’t mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital , they do. ” Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics. NINE!!!

The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child—her previous two were also born at Parkland . Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost$200 to have them in Mexico. This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won’t turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)
“How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects?

Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the US illegally – now she is having her own child there as well. (That’s right; she’s technically a US citizen.)

These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.
Most of these things are available to American citizens as well, but only for low-income applicants, and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.
Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification – no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income – an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.

Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job.. Yeah, the ‘free’ care is not so easy for Americans.)

There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is going to sue them! Illegal’s get it all free! But U. S citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn’t annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish.

This was apparently a great injustice to her.

In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish.. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas Illegal Immigrant Problem « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian

Just think of the money Texas will save.

Does Illegal Immigration Cost Me?

They Come To America The Cost of Illegal

The High Cost of Illegal Immigration

Illegal Aliens Cost Florida Hospitals $100 Million

$$ COST of ILLEGALS to U.S.

Immigration: The Human Cost

THE REAL COST OF IMMIGRATION

Originally Posted by artclam

The full study can be found at http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-c.../08/Texas1.pdf . It is so biased as to be almost laughable. It considers only the benefits lost by deporting IAs and the benefits gained but legealizing them. It totally ignores the savings due to deporting IAs and the costs of legalizing them.

They seem to always conveniently leave that out.

What will it cost every city, county and state law enforcement agency just to do the criminal background check for every illegal alien in the the new amnesty program?

http://www.alipac.us/f12/obama-immig...arches-263322/

I don't care what numbers they pull out of a hat, it costs us billions having them here. We have millions of unemployed people who will easily take on the jobs the deported illegals have. We DO NOT need to be bilingual here in America. We were fine before the invasion, we will manage after they're gone. Take away jobs and freebies and problems solved. They have got to go!