Tancredo Asks Schwarzenegger to Cut Services to Illegals
Saturday, 26 July 2008

California going bankrupt over taxpayer dollars funneled to illegal aliens
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) today sent a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) asking him to look into the vast amounts of money spent on services for illegal aliens in California, despite the serious budget concerns the state is facing.

A copy of the letter is below:

Dear Governor:

According to many news reports and statements from your office, the State of California is facing an unprecedented budget crisis. The available data suggests that California could save several billion dollars by reducing the amounts spent providing services to illegal aliens residing in the state.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, in a 2007 study, estimated that California spends over $10,000,000 on services to illegal aliens and their children. Much of this expenditure is for K-12 education and for emergency health care and is required by federal law, but some of it is not mandated by federal law and can be reduced or eliminated.

In your budget message and proposal for the FY2009 state budget, you identified over $1,000,000 that could be saved by reducing the sentences of illegal aliens incarcerated by the state Department of Corrections. I think it is safe to say that that savings figure could be doubled if the state prohibited all sanctuary policies and all criminal aliens were reported to federal immigration authorities and deported after their first criminal offense.

There would be far fewer criminal aliens in the state correctional system if they were deported out of local jails after their first conviction. Yet the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that only 10% of inmates in local jails are ever deported.

According to a 2002 study by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs, 24% of the individuals who went through the Los Angeles county jail in 2001 were illegal aliens. By most estimates, it is 10% to 20% in most counties and probably 20% in the state facilities. If you do the math, you will be surprised at the potential savings to California’s taxpayers by deporting criminal aliens more swiftly.

According to the FAIR study, half of all children in California’s K-12 schools have one immigrant parent, and the state spends over $2,000,000 to educate the children of illegal alien parents. The state’s public schools add over 100,000 new students each year. Wouldn’t it be good to know what percentage of those new students are children of illegal alien parents?

I have two concrete suggestions on how to get a handle on these state expenses. As Governor, you can ask the state legislature to enact a law requiring each school district to report the immigration status of all parents who register children in K-12 facilities. This would not deny services to those parents and students; it would merely document the size of the population of such children being served by the state’s public schools. Once taxpayers see the size of this fiscal obligation, they can better assess the size of the problem created by the state’s toleration of various sanctuary policies and the fiscal impact of those policies on the state budget.

My second suggestion is that you ask the state legislature to prohibit cities and counties from adopting sanctuary policies, by which I mean any policy, ordinance or police guidance which interferes with any police officer’s or other public official’s communication with federal authorities regarding the immigration status of any resident. Such policies are, in fact, a violation of federal law (8U.S.C.1373) and a shameful pandering to open borders lobbyists.

Governor, you have options. If you continue to invite more illegal aliens to the state by offering inducements in the form of jobs, education, subsidized health care and protection from deportation, you will increase the burden on California’s taxpayers. The other option is to take steps to discourage illegal immigration by withholding or reducing services to them.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful.
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