Illegal Immigrants "good for the economy?"
How about a $62.9 million TRASH bill?

How many times must we listen to our government leaders , who seem to believe we are all stupid, telling us that illegal immigration is essential to our economic survival? Both democrats and republicans alike, will have you believe that our country benefits financially from the never ending flow of "illegal" migrants into the United States, most of whom lack a basic high school education. Fortunately, almost all polls show that 85% of Americans are NOT stupid and are well aware that our representatives are purposely lying to us.

Now, we get this report that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management estimates American tax payers are stuck shelling out approximately $62.9 million ... simply to clean up the TRASH dumped by illegals in the Arizona desert. In this report by Tony Davis of the Arizona Daily Star:

While nobody has an exact cost estimate for removing all the garbage, it's clearly not cheap. But McFarlin agrees with several advocacy groups that without a tightening of controls on illegal immigration, a guest-worker program or other reform of federal border policy, the trash will just keep coming regardless of what's spent.

The financial details:

● In 2002, the U.S. estimated that removing all litter from lands just in Southeast Arizona — east of the Tohono Reservation — would cost about $4.5 million over five years. This count didn't include such trash hotbeds as Ironwood Forest National Monument, the Altar Valley, Organ Pipe and Cabeza Prieta.

● Since then, Congress appropriated about $3.4 million for a wide range of environmental remediation measures in all of Southern Arizona. This includes repairing roads, building fences and removing abandoned cars.

● The five-year tab is $62.9 million for all forms of environmental remediation for immigration-related damage across Southeast Arizona, including $23 million for the first year.

As staggering as this amount is, it is just a tiny fraction of what illegal immigration is costing us taxpayers. Here is a breakdown of what this invasion is costing American citizens, according to the Huddle Report back in 1997:

As published by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR):

1996 Costs Table from the Huddle Study

Programs
Public Education K-12
$5.85 Billion
Public Higher Education
$0.71 Billion
ESL and Bilingual Education
$1.22 Billion
Food Stamps
$0.85 Billion
AFDC
$0.50 Billion
Housing
$0.61 Billion
Social Security
$3.61 Billion
Earned Income Tax Credit
$0.68 Billion
Medicaid
$3.12 Billion
Medicare A and B
$0.58 Billion
Criminal Justice and Corrections
$0.76 Billion
Local Government
$5.00 Billion
Other Programs
$9.25 Billion
Total Costs
$32.74 Billion
Less Taxes Paid
$12.59 Billion
Net Costs of Direct Services
$20.16 Billion
Displacement Costs
$4.28 Billion

All Net Costs
$24.44 Billion

Other More Recent Estimates

Other estimates have been done on components of the cost of illegal immigration. For example, FAIR estimated in 2003 that the cost of K-12 education for illegal alien children was at least $7.4 billion annually (see Breaking the Piggybank). This would be less than double the about $5.9 billion estimate above, but would be of the same order of magnitude. FAIR's 2004 report on the medical expenses incurred because of illegal immigration (see The Sinking Lifeboat) shows uncompensated costs in excess of one billion dollars.

So common sense would seem to make it quite obvious that it would be almost impossible to believe the nonsense being put forth by the likes of John McCain, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean, and Hillary Clinton. What's amazing is the number of Republican officials offering the same garbage. Please! Don't allow them to believe they have you fooled. Please call and write your government officials and let them know that you are aware of the facts. Let them know we will not stand for amnesty, or anything short of 100% border enforcement. And please forward this article on to everyone you know.


For further information and related info, read the following articles:

Full Arizona Daily Star Report

Center for Immigration Studies

Costs of Illegal Immigration to Floridians

Immigration and Jobs:The Process of Displacement