Costs Of Illegal Immigration...

VON SPAKOVSKY: Here illegally and criminals as well:

Those who support amnesty and non-enforcement of our immigration laws don’t like to talk about how much illegal immigration costs American citizens. But a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) graphically illustrates some of those costs, which go far beyond dollars.

GAO found that one of every four inmates in federal prisons is an illegal immigrant. And that number is rising. Since 2005, the number of criminal aliens in federal prison has increased by 7 percent.

Two thirds (68 percent) of those incarcerated aliens came from Mexico. Just think of how much less crime we would have if we put in the manpower and resources required to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our Southern border.

Of course, not all illegal immigrants convicted of criminal activity are housed in federal prisons. Washington provides partial reimbursement (about 23 percent) to states that incarcerate criminal aliens through the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). GAO estimates nearly 300,000 SCAAP aliens are confined in state and local prisons — a 35 percent increase from 2003.

Two-thirds (66 percent) of SCAAP prisoners are locked up in just six states — California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, New York and Illinois. California alone holds more than 100,000 — at huge cost to state taxpayers — while Texas incarcerates 37,000. As with federal inmates, the vast majority (66 percent) of aliens in state prisons are from Mexico.

Obviously, these incarcerated aliens represent a huge drain on taxpayers. The criminal justice system — from investigation to arrest to prosecution and imprisonment — does not come cheap. But the cost in terms of the safety and lives of American citizens is even higher — indeed, incalculable. GAO found “criminal aliens were arrested about 1.7 million times, averaging about 7 arrests per criminal alien.” Their offense records were even worse: “A total of 2.9 million offenses, averaging about 12 offenses per criminal alien.”

And what were those offenses? GAO’s random sample of 1,000 criminal aliens found that half were arrested at least once for assault, homicide, robbery, a sex offense (such as rape) or kidnapping. About 50 percent were arrested at least once on drug charges. In New York, the primary offense for which aliens were convicted in 2008 was homicide. From 2005 through 2008, drugs, sex crimes and assault were the top three offenses for illegal immigrants imprisoned by states seeking reimbursement under the SCAAP program.

But many of these aliens had multiple arrests in their record (which raises the question of why they were in a position to commit a second offense):

More than a quarter (28 percent) had six to 10 arrests.

Another 11 percent had 11 to 15 arrests.

3 percent had rap sheets revealing 21 or more arrests.

Had those criminals been detained and deported when first arrested, hundreds of thousands of Americans would not have been victimized by their subsequent crimes.

It is quite true that some illegal immigrants re-enter the country after they have been deported and then commit more crimes. But the fact that they are able to re-enter so easily goes back to the initial problem we have: that not enough is being done to secure our borders.

So we get victims such as the 16-year-old girl in Miami who, after attending church, was raped recently by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, a crime that might not have happened but for our non-enforcement policies. The tally of victims also includes thousands of people no longer with us — the GAO report lists more than 25,000 homicide arrests of aliens — as well as their grieving families and friends.

What we need is an administration that:

Encourages states to help enforce our immigration laws (The current administration is suing states that try to help.)

Sues cities with sanctuary policies that violate federal law.

Uses all of the federal resources at its disposal to find, detain and deport illegal immigrants.

Is willing to prosecute employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Implements all of the measures needed to finally secure our border.

Only then will Americans stop being victims of needless — and preventable — crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Only then will taxpayers stop getting hit with the costs of tracking down and incarcerating (and feeding, providing medical care for, etc.) people who violate the law to get here. As the GAO study suggests, a large number of those who break the law to enter our country keep on breaking it once they arrive.

Link: http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/27/von-spakovsky-here-illegally-and-criminals-as-well/

 

As long as the immigrant pays taxes, they can help pay for the outrageous cost of the dropout factories they call Public Schools. The Schools are a bigger threat to national security than the immigrant, legal or illegal.

 

First of all, illegals do not belong here, should not be paying taxes (through stolen identities or fraudulent SSN, or just plain governmental oversight), and cost a lot more to our economy than they fraudulently contribute.

And don't tell me that these illegals that are infesting our public schools, especially in the southwest, are model students.

 

70% of illegals are on welfare, some are on welfare in multiple states and i'm sure some have jobs on top of the welfare they collect. The 11 billion a year in taxes they pay is nowhere near the amount they take from hard working americans.

 

The study is only federal money. Add in local and state fees. And it surly shows illegals don't pay for them selves.

There is no budget for illegal immigrants. Its all borrowed money that the American people pay for.

 

The trick of looking at federal prison populations is a scam. It's been thoroughly debunked many times.

First off, an undocumented immigrant convicted of a state crime is automatically transferred to federal prison. So, since federal prisons hold much fewer prisoners than state prisons and all the undocumented immigrants from the much larger pool get dumped in the smaller pool, the fact that there are a high percentage of them in the small pool doesn't tell you anything.

Secondly, even if you looked at the total prison population (in which case undocumented immigrants are actually UNDER represented), that still doesn't correlate to crime. What percentage of a prison population some group makes up is a factor of the chance that they'll be convicted if accused, how long their sentence will be, and how likely they are to get paroled. All those skew it even further against undocumented immigrants, since of course, they can't afford lawyers, judges look very disfavorably on undocumented immigrants so they are far more likely to convict them and give them a stiff sentence, and parole boards are far less likely to parole somebody that can't even be in the country legally.

So, yeah, it's total bs.

 

Great post by Teamosil, it's to be expected.

 

You don't need an SSN to pay taxes.

 

Either way, they are paying taxes that the government should not be taking. They should be deported. The only way they would be able to pay taxes without being found to be illegals, would be through fraud.

 

Link? I don't think what you've posted is correct.

 

They pay taxes using a number the government willingly gives them.

 

I agree with the subject line. Illegal immigration does have costs. For example, the fact that we have made some immigration illegal has created a black market for labor, which makes legal labor capital harder to allocate and allows for the exploitation of black market laborers. It creates a black market in transportation for illegal aliens, which subsidizes many of the things we hope to prevent. It assures that many of the people who get through the border specialize in illegal activities, so they're better at the things we don't wish them to be and aren't drowned out in influence by other immigrants. It is equivalent to a quota for physical capital, and is about as useful at reducing allocative and productive efficiency within the economy, and just as well-supported by irrational jerks who have a special interest they want to protect, but which in the long run harms everyone. So yes, the existence of illegal immigrants is quite costly. We could do something about that pretty quickly.

 

Mostly under fraudulent pretenses.

 

What would you suggest?

 

There many who don't pay taxes like income taxes. They believe it just takes money away from them. They can easily file taxes but many don't. Then you have the ones who use fake and stolen IDs.

 

Why would you use fraud to get an ITIN? You clearly don't have a clue how it works do you?

 

No limit to legal immigration. Illegal immigration as a legal construct replaced with undocumented immigration, and no deportation of non-criminals.

 

Come on buddy, I wasn't born yesterday. There is a complete underground network for illegals to get anything from a SSN to a driver's license.

 

There is a legal way for pretty much anyone to come here as it is. Open borders, if that is what you are suggesting, is ludicrous.

 

And includes certificates and licenses(plumbers license etc).

 

If all illegal immigrants go straight to federal prison instead of state. then why does California by itself. pay for the housing of close to 22,000 in 2009 that had immigration holds on them.

I guess the 22,000 just forgot to go to the federal prison system?

 

I don't understand why in the world you matching paying taxes with SSN. You don't NEED an SSN to pay taxes. You don't need to do fraud either. You can pay taxes in a complete legal way.

 

According to wikipedia in 2006 1.4 million people filed taxes using ITIN's. Foreign investors use ITIN's as well as illegals, so the number of illegals voluntarily paying taxes is fairly small.

 

Yes, so immigration reform will only benefit those few because it clearly states they need to pay taxes to qualify. So people should not be saying immigration reform is mass amnesty.

 

Which immigration reform bill are you referring to?