FEDERAL COSTS OF LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Here are some interesting links regarding the cost of both legal and illegal immigrants. Please do your own research on the matter, but these numbers are in-line with the numbers that my researched produced regarding the 11 million illegal immigrants.

It is helpful to imagine all the possible direct and indirect “costs” and all the possible direct and indirect "revenue items;" and then fill them in with your own research and hypotheticals to get to an educated estimate.

There are several governmental "direct costs" (both state and federal) associated with illegal immigration. These commonly include health care, education, incarceration, and other welfare programs. As not all of the health care costs are borne by the government, these are also costs to the other consumers of private health care.

There are other costs (both direct and indirect), such as forgone taxes for those that are being paid off the books. Another big cost, which is difficult to estimate, is the cost of the drugs being smuggled across the Mexican border and used in the United States. To me, this cost appears to be very large.

The "indirect costs" of health care becoming unaffordable for some residents, of emergency rooms closing, and of classroom sizes significantly increasing can be dramatic and impact generations to come. As discussed in prior posts, these indirect costs can (and probably do in some circumstances) change the very nature of certain residents' lives through reduced educational (and financial) prosperity and increased illness (or death). Such hardships can also increase crime rates and drug use. In the end, these costs will impact some families that are in the United States legally for generations. [And for what? So that businesses can make more profits? Aren’t our children’s futures worth just a bit more? Is Bush really a family values guy, or just another big business crony? I find it odd that Bush is more concerned with unborn children than he is with our living children.]

On the "revenue" side, taxes collected are important. There are also "sales" taxes; and other “spending” on the private side that results in profits for those that are producing the products and services that are being consumed by the illegal immigrants (i.e., businesses -- there is a shocker). The benefit of this last item is hard to measure, as it could include increased employment and utilization for the product and service producers; the potential benefit of this item, however, is reduced by the fact that a significant amount of the illegals’ spending power is sent home.

For those businesses that use illegals, there is also a significant savings. However, this is basically a transfer of wealth to such businesses for the items now made the responsibility of the governments and the average citizens, such as health care and other items not covered by the forgone taxes. Basically, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (again, what a shocker).

Overall, the numbers indicate a drain associated with both illegal and legal immigrants on our government’s budget. [We assume this responsibility for legal residents. However, these numbers do indicate the type of dramatic increases in the costs we should expect from giving illegals green cards (or legal “residency”) under the proposed legislation.]

Here is the link for the federal cost of legal immigrants. Note the reference of the "credits" in the footnotes.

Here is the link for the federal cost of illegal immigrants.

A few more interesting sites:

Post-Gazette

Urban Institute

ParaPundit

Durrani

Deseret News

NC Times

Washington Post

The Social Contract

There are also "several" governmental sites (such as the Census Bureau, etc.) that are interesting and informative. Some are included:

State Department

State Department (Cont.)

Census Bureau

ASPE