Thread: COMMENTARY : FEDS MUST FOOT THE BILL FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Feds must foot bill for illegal immigration


Left, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, represents the 50th Congressional District and chairs the Immigration Reform Caucus. Supervisor Bill Horn represents the 5th District on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.


By: BRIAN BILBRAY and BILL HORN - Commentary

SD County bearing too much burden for failure to control the border

For far too long, the county of San Diego has been subsidizing the costs of illegal immigration. Last year it was $101 million. That's money that could be spent on enhancing the lives of our seniors and children, providing additional resources for law enforcement and making overdue upgrades to our roads and public infrastructure. Over and over again the county has told the federal government, "Show us the money!" The reply back has been, "Show us the costs." Now we have.

Distinguished San Diego State University professors John Weeks, Ph.D., and David Eisenberg, Ph.D., have documented those undocumented costs. Their study has given us what's needed to bring a workable plan forward that will ease the unfair burden the county is forced to shoulder for the nation's No. 1 deadbeat dad, the federal government. The study, commissioned by the county of San Diego, details how the illegal immigrant population has more than doubled during the past seven years while the costs associated with paying for their services has tripled. All the while the contribution from the federal government to the county for these costs has been pennies on the dollar.

The report specifically examined the health care and criminal justice costs that came out of the county's general fund for fiscal year 2006-07. Of the $101 million that the county spent last year, more than $75 million could be attributed to the costs associated with the criminal justice impact of illegal immigrants, and the remaining $26 million was a result of the health and human service and environmental impacts associated with illegal immigration. That doesn't include $154 million incurred last year for treatment of illegal immigrants at area hospitals.

The majority of discretionary county funds are primarily derived from property taxes. When you take all county services to people who are here illegally and add the cost our community hospitals must pick up, it breaks down to $89.21 per legal resident each year or for a family of four, almost $400 a household.

Things have reached a breaking point. The money the county is forced to pay for services and benefits for illegal immigrants represents nearly one-third of the county's discretionary budget. Just think of how many roads we could pave and firetrucks we could purchase if the federal government wasn't stealing our tax dollars.

The time for symbolic protests and empty rhetoric is over. We have presented an action plan that targets three specific areas where we can make a lasting impact on the adverse effects the county is experiencing due to the enormous costs of illegal immigration. First, improve information sharing between Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement agencies to identify criminal aliens before they commit another crime.

Second, the Social Security Administration has an "earning suspense file."

This is truly a "who done it?" The file holds funds paid by persons with Social Security numbers that do not match SSA records. This fund includes dollars paid by illegal immigrants. We're talking bank vault numbers. Right now on average, the fund is growing by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. More than 9 million W-2s with incorrect Social Security numbers land in the suspense file. A portion of the money from that file should be allocated to local governments to cover their services.

Third, Section 1011 of the Medicare Modernization Act sets aside money to cover some of the costs of uncompensated care for local hospitals. A portion of the money is still left in the pool. We'd like to get all that money out of the pool and to our local hospitals.

The failure of Congress to address this issue in a bipartisan fashion has paralyzed the country where 12 million to 20 million illegals are receiving taxpayer funded benefits. A failed border enforcement policy is largely responsible for the mess we're in. Local governments should not be forced to subsidize the mistakes of the federal government. We call on the entire San Diego congressional delegation to join with us to fight for our fair share of federal dollars.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, represents the 50th Congressional District of California and is chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus. Supervisor Bill Horn represents the 5th District of San Diego County on the Board of Supervisors.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrest a suspected criminal illegal immigrant in June as part of Operation Return to Sender. San Diego County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to send President Bush a $101 million bill to reimburse county taxpayers for what a county-commissioned study stated illegal immigrants cost them last year. In 1994 and 2001, supervisors sent similar bills to the federal government that were subsequently ignored.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... _29_07.txt

You read things like that and it boggles the mind that anyone.....still in control of their mind........can ever possibly think that the "solution" to all of the problems caused by illegals is to legalize them.

All you'd have is the very same people costing us the same amount, and undoubtedly even more, in benefits, social service programs, and justice costs. Legalized or not, these same people would still be bankrupting our hospitals, adversely affecting our schools, and impacting us in all of the other same areas they do now.

Just where in the hell does it make any sense to anyone to legalize these people?

Well i think the problem will be that if they are legalized then they will have the right to complain about wages When those wages are raised the coprorate Monkey will have to get more illegals to replace the onces that became legal, then they will be out of work so we will have to support the new legals plus the new illegals that will be coming in to do the jobs the new legals are no longer going to be doing.

this was discussed on Lou Dobbs show on Tuesday or Wednesdau, i believe.
Casey Wian did the report. it basically said the same thing as this article is saying

Feds must foot bill for illegal immigration

The crackdown on illegal immigration is working, but they need to step it up, do more, or simply reinforce it.

One of the ways this could be done at zero cost would be for the Federal Government, aka, President George W. Bush to get on TV and announce that U.S. immigration laws are being enforced and if you are in the U.S. illegally you should return to your country of origin.

Simple. Many people would reconsider whether they will be bold enough to stay on or accept this ultimatum and self-deport without us having to lift a finger or spend another penny.

Of course. the DEMS would SCREAM......but the American people would know that President Bush is doing the right thing for the citizens of the United States and THIS would not only help him, but it would give the Republicans a big boost because, the Dems would EXPOSE themselves as to how worthless they really are when it comes to protecting the American people and enforcing our laws.

It would give the American people a prelude as to what we can expect of them if we were to hand them the keys to the White House.