Immigration Issues : The Numbers

Immigration Issues

The numbers are surprising.

Unless you run across a page like this, you probably have only a vague idea of the scope of the immigration problem, and the magnitude of the financial impact on this country. The problem is much larger and more costly than most people realize.

Mexico's cartels transfer $40B yearly from U.S.: Report. Mexico's drug trafficking cartels repatriate almost $40 billion every year after laundering the money in the U.S., newspaper El Universal reported Wednesday [8/8/2012], citing an interview with retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, the White House's anti-drug czar from 1996 to 2001. The criminals use 10 highways in the U.S., particularly in Texas, to transfer the money in cash to Mexico, McCaffrey said, according to the newspaper.

Foreign-Born Now 13 Percent Of U.S. Population. Foreigners are 13 percent of the population in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week. The Los Angeles Times reported that 13 percent, or 40 million persons out of about 300 million, is the largest number of foreign born since 1920. Not surprisingly, the largest cohort of foreigners are Mexicans and Latin Americans.

CASA de Maryland: The Illegals' ACORN. The illegal immigration debate has become an urgent focal point of American politics. Liberal politicians from the White House on down have vigorously advocated for illegal immigrant amnesty and lax border enforcement in a naked attempt to bolster prospective voter rolls. This controversy has been brewing for some time in Maryland, whose Hispanic population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010. Under Governor Martin O'Malley's sanctuary policies the state has become an illegal alien magnet. The current cost of illegals in Maryland is estimated to be $1.7 billion per year, more than three-quarters of the state's $2 billion structural deficit.

Our Country Coming Undone. Astoundingly, 10% of Mexico now lives in our country. Fully 75% of all drugs cross over from Mexico. We pay $68 billion in expenses for immigrants annually. They send home hard currency of $10.5 billion to Mexico, $25 billion to Latin America, $16 billion to Asia thus draining our country. In short, illegal immigration is killing this country.

Danger in the Census Numbers. The Census Bureau just issued population data compiled from last year's national decadal census. The data reveals that the Hispanic population has grown much faster than anticipated. The reasons attributed are birthrate and immigration — both legal and illegal.

An educated guess on Texas students in the U.S. illegally. In Texas, nobody asks, nobody tells, but a whole lot of people would sure like to know. How many illegal immigrants attend the state's public schools, supported by taxpayer money?

Latino kids now majority in state's public schools. Latinos now make up a majority of California's public school students, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the first time in the state's history, according to data released Friday [11/12/2010] by the state Department of Education. Almost 50.4 percent of the state's students in the 2009-10 school year identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, up 1.36 percent from the previous year.

Report: 5% of kids in U.S. born to illegal immigrants. Four million children in the U.S. were born of illegal immigrant parents but were granted U.S. citizenship because they were born on American soil, according to a report released today [8/11/2010].

Illegal Immigrants Bear 8% of Children Born in the U.S.. As discussion over whether to end birthright citizenship intensifies, a new study of Census Bureau data reveals that 8 percent of children born in the United States in 2008 were parented by illegal immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of polling organization Pew Research Center, finds that, of the 4.3 million babies born in 2008, roughly 340,000 were born to undocumented aliens.

Children of illegal aliens cost county welfare $44 million in March. Figures from the Department of Public Social Services show that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 — an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

California counties cut healthcare to illegal immigrants. Forced to slash their budgets, some California counties are eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants — a move that officials acknowledge could backfire by shifting the financial burden to emergency rooms.

Study: Illegal immigrants having more kids in US. Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, a report says.

1 in 10 Texas children has an undocumented parent. A growing share of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens, illustrating a sensitive, demographic shift in the makeup of America's undocumented migrant population. The Pew Hispanic Center released a report Tuesday [4/14/2009] estimating that about 73 percent of the children of illegal immigrant parents were U.S.-born citizens in 2008, up from roughly 63 percent in 2003.

Study: Illegal alien population may be as high as 38 million. A new report finds the Homeland Security Department "grossly underestimates" the number of illegal aliens living in the U.S. Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Studies released a report August 31 that estimates the number of illegal aliens residing in the U.S. is between 8 and 12 million. But the group Californians for Population Stabilization, or CAPS, has unveiled a report estimating the illegal population is actually between 20 and 38 million.

Many illegal immigrants live in public housing. Untold thousands of illegal immigrants live in public housing at a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal residents are stuck waiting years for a spot. Illegal immigrants make up a tiny portion of the 7.1 million people in federal housing, according to government statistics. But authorities may be unaware of thousands more, and critics say no illegal immigrant should get housing benefits.

Mexican workers send less cash home from the US. Over the past decade, entire towns in Mexico have been rebuilt with money sent from immigrants or migrant workers living in the US. Now, for the first time since Mexico's Central Bank began keeping records (13 years ago), total annual remittances from the US have fallen. The numbers themselves, released by the Central Bank on Tuesday, are not dramatic. Mexicans sent $25 billion to their families in 2008, down from $26 billion the year before, representing a 3.6 percent decline.

Obama shields ACORN from Criminal Prosecution in the Economic Crisis. The Department of Housing and Urban Development reportedly found that "five million illegal aliens hold illegal mortgages." Who arranged these illegal mortgages? The Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act is not unique legislation that helps community organizers, and other special interest outreach groups, like ACORN. ... Obama's Citizenship Promotion Act "organizes the immigrant community" by using $80 million taxpayer dollars for outreach programs targeted at immigrants and future voters.

Use money transfers to stop illegal immigrants. Mexican workers in the U.S. send an estimated $23 billion back home every year, typically in small amounts. Officially, these transfers are called "remittances" — just for some current perspective, it's more than Mexico's total annual tourism revenue, and until recently it was larger than their annual oil revenue!

Half of immigrants in Texas are there illegally, study says. Half of the nearly 3.5 million immigrants living in Texas are in the country illegally, the Center for Immigration Studies says in a report being released today [11/29/2007]. Based on the latest Census Bureau data, the report said Texas has one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations of any state. It said that 50 percent of the state's foreign-born population — slightly more than 1.7 million people — are illegal immigrants.

Amount of money sent home by Mexicans drops sharply. The amount of money Mexicans sent home suffered its sharpest drop on record in July as the U.S. economy slowed and the dollar fell, Mexico's central bank reported today. Remittances — Mexico's second-largest legal source of foreign income after oil — dropped by 6.9 percent in July compared to the year before.

The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer: Means-tested programs are typically termed welfare programs. … The largest of these are Medicaid; the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); food stamps; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Section 8 housing; public housing; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF); the school lunch and breakfast programs; the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) nutrition program; and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Many means-tested programs, such as SSI and the EITC, provide cash to recipients. Others, such as public housing or SSBG, pay for services that are provided to recipients. … Overall, the U.S. spent $564 billion on means-tested aid in FY 2004.

Western Union Empire Moves Migrant Cash Home. To glimpse how migration is changing the world, consider Western Union, a fixture of American lore that went bankrupt selling telegrams at the dawn of the Internet age but now earns nearly $1 billion a year helping poor migrants across the globe send money home. Migration is so central to Western Union that forecasts of border movements drive the company's stock.

U.S. is out $51M for flying 64,000 illegals to Mexico. The U.S. government has spent more than $51 million over the past four summers flying nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants home to Mexico City. The flights are intended to break the smuggling cycle and reduce the desert death count. But evidence shows the binational Interior Repatriation Program has not made any substantial difference in border smuggling or desert deaths. And the principal beneficiary is a Mexican airline contracted to operate the twice-daily flights out of Tucson, critics say.

The Editor says...
It seems to me that $796.87 is a very high price for a one-way ticket to Mexico City, especially at the group rate you could get by purchasing 64,000 tickets. All that aside, the deported individuals will come back to the U.S. as soon as they can, so perhaps Mexico City is too convenient. Here's my suggestion: Fly the deportees to the most remote corner of Mexico. Or better yet, Guatemala or Panama. Or Venezuela. Or Argentina.

Now Boarding: Illegal Immigrants On One-Way Tickets Home. While U.S. airlines downsize and scrimp on amenities, one carrier is offering its passengers leather seats, ample legroom and free food. But frequent fliers probably don't want a ticket on what may be the fastest growing "airline" serving Central America. This carrier is run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for finding and deporting undocumented immigrants. A crackdown on illegal immigration has led to a spike in deportations and the creation of a de facto airline to send the deportees home.

Giving Welfare to Illegals: The Heritage analysis of the costs of amnesty was a study of the fiscal costs (benefits received minus taxes paid) of amnesty recipients during their retirement years. It concluded that amnesty recipients would impose a likely net cost of $2.6 trillion dollars on the taxpayers during that period and that these costs would mainly occur in two non-welfare programs (Social Security and Medicare) and in one means-tested program (Medicaid). The study explicitly states that these costs will not commence until 25 to 30 years after the bill is enacted.

A New Argument About Immigration. The pro-more-immigration crowd argues that today's immigrants are just like immigrants of a century ago: poor people looking for a better life who are expected to advance in our land of opportunity. [Mark] Krikorian's new argument is that while today's immigrants may be like earlier ones, the America they come to is so very different that our previous experience with immigrants is practically irrelevant. The essential difference between the two waves of immigrants was best summed up by the Nobel Prize-winning advocate of a free market, Milton Friedman. He said, "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state."

Report Uncovers Hidden Cost of Immigration. Are you having a hard time paying your bills, making your mortgage payments, or putting your kids through college? You need to know how much of your hard-earned income the government is skimming off and diverting into handouts to immigrants and illegal immigrants. You can read the depressing details in the new 70-page document called "The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration" by Edwin S. Rubenstein.

Illegal Alien Welfare Costs Exceed $35 Million. LA County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has announced that a new report shows illegal aliens and their families in Los Angeles County collected over $35 million in welfare and food stamp allocations in July. In the report, illegals are said to have collected nearly $20 million in welfare assistance for July 2007 and an additional $15 million in monthly food stamp allocations for an estimated annual cost of $440 million.

Immigrants are Filling the Cities. Atlanta added more people than any other metro area from 2000 to 2006; the area, which includes Sandy Springs and Marietta, Ga., added 890,000 people, putting its population at about 5.1 million. Gaining the most after Atlanta were Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix and Riverside, Calif.

What Does Illegal Immigration Cost? a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, Robert Rector, has found a new and revealing way to get at the answer. … Rector found that in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, low-skill households received an average of $32,138 per household — the great majority in the form of means-tested aid and direct benefits. (Rector excluded from that figure the cost of public goods and interest; with those included, he says, each low-skill household receives an average of $43,084.) Against that, Rector found that low-skill households paid an average of $9,689 in taxes.

Social Security for illegal aliens. An agreement the Bush administration reached with Mexico on Social Security benefits would allow illegal aliens granted amnesty in the future to claim credit for the time they worked illegally. The deal was reached in 2004 but never released publicly because it hasn't been submitted to Congress. The TREA Senior Citizens League, a Social Security advocacy group, recently obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act, and said it confirms the group's worst fears.

U.S. Jails are Overflowing with Illegal Aliens. The government does not know how many aliens, lawfully admitted, left the United States within the time they were authorized to remain. This is because US-VISIT, the system that was supposed to use biometrics to track the entry and departure of aliens from the United States, is unable to track effectively the departure of nonimmigrant aliens even though the government has already spent over one billion dollars on that program, recommended by the 9/11 Commission. Most of the immigration system is dysfunctional. Goals are seldom met, and effective strategies to deter illegal immigration have yet to be formulated, let alone implemented.

However...
Mistakes, Lies and Prison Statistics. Taking the total state-federal prison population (2,193,798) and the total number of non-citizens in both systems (122,708), the actual percentage of "criminal aliens" in our prisons amounts to 5.5% — not even remotely close to the 29% or "one third" claimed by clownish demagogues. Repeatedly misrepresenting the percentage of "illegals" in our prisons by a factor of more than 5 to 1 amounts to more than a trivial mistake, and becomes an outrageous, irresponsible, indefensible lie.

Critics say Social Security deal would give billions to Mexicans. The Social Security Administration insists that the agreement — which has yet to be signed by President Bush and sent to Congress for consideration — would cost the retirement and disability fund a relatively scant $105 million annually for the first five years.

[$105 million is not a "scant" amount of money.]

Social Security siphon: As Stephen Dinan reported in The Washington Times yesterday [1/4/2007], the Bush administration has reached an agreement with Mexico that would permit illegal aliens, after they are granted amnesty in the future, to claim Social Security benefits for the work they performed while in the United States illegally, even if the illegal aliens committed felonies by using fraudulent Social Security documents to obtain their jobs.

[Why do we need to reach an agreement with Mexico on this?]

Totalization is a Bad Idea. Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, a private group recently obtained a copy of a 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico that will allow hundreds of thousands of noncitizens to receive Social Security benefits. The agreement creates a so-called "totalization" plan between the two nations.

Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily. While the military "quagmire" in Iraq was said to tip the scales of power in the U.S. midterm elections, most Americans have no idea more of their fellow citizens — men, women and children — were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began.

Immigration statistics estimated by the current date and time. One figure shows "Illegal's (sic) Enrolled in Public Schools K-12", and it advances at a constant rate, even on the weekends. It's rather interesting to see the estimates, despite the inattention to detail.

Las Vegas: Hispanic students outnumber whites. Hispanic students outnumber white students for the first time in the 50-year history of the Clark County School District, according to the latest figures from the district.

Taxpayers called 'doormat' for illegal border crossings. San Diego area government officials complained yesterday [8/14/2006] that the federal government's failure to curb illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border was sapping local public services while a key House chairman said prospects for action this year on the immigration front did not look good.

Illegal immigrant numbers in U.S. up to 11 million. About 11 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. at the start of this year, the federal government said in a report Friday [8/18/2006]. That's up from an estimated 8.5 million living in the country in January 2000, according to calculations by the Office of Immigration Statistics in the Department of Homeland Security.

The economic truths of immigration reform. Over the past fifteen years, according to the World Bank, China and India have surged ahead of Mexico and the gap is widening. Mexico has gone nowhere. And until Mexico's economic malaise is cured, millions will continue to seek economic opportunity in the United States. Can you blame them?

More cash flows to Mexico. Mexicans working abroad sent home a record $25 billion last year, most of it from the United States, according to a study released Friday [2/2/2007]. The estimated figure represents a 25 percent increase over 2005 and a nearly 80 percent surge since 2003, the Inter-American Development Bank, or IDB, said in its report.

Latin Americans send $60B home. Latin Americans working outside their countries will send $60 billion home this year, a 12 percent increase over 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank said Wednesday [10/18/2006]. Bank officials who have studied the flow of money since 2000 said the potential for the money fueling development south of the border is limited.

Some Big Banks Enable Illegals to Send American Money Home — Not Where It Belongs. The great majority of illegal aliens who violate our nation's borders do so in order to earn money (illegally) and then send that money back to their families in their countries of origin. Whether the illegal alien simply worked at a menial job without the authority of our government or if he committed more serious violations of law by selling drugs, robbing banks, engaging in various forms of fraud and identity theft or otherwise committing felonies the motivation is the same, to acquire money that can be sent home, wherever "home" is.

Immigrants in Texas to send $5.2 billion home. Latin American immigrants in Texas will send $5.2 billion back home to their relatives this year, ranking second only to California in a state-by-state breakdown released today by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund. Remittances from Texas will soar by 64 percent this year compared to in 2004, surpassing the national increase of 51 percent, the study found.

One in Seven Mexican workers migrates — most send money home. Migration is profoundly altering Mexico and Central America. Entire rural communities are nearly bereft of working-age men. The town of Tendeparacua, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, had 6,000 residents in 1985, and now has 600, according to news reports. In five Mexican states, the money migrants send home exceeds locally generated income, one study found. Last year, Mexico received a record $20 billion in remittances from migrant workers. That is equal to Mexico's 2004 income from oil exports and dwarfing tourism revenue.

The Senate's proposed amnesty will cost a fortune. Congress is in the midst of the most dramatic overhaul of our nation's immigration laws in 80 years. So why is hardly anyone is asking the basic question, How might this affect government costs?

Report Says Migrants Repatriated $23 Billion to Latin America, Caribbean in 2001: The researchers estimated that $14.2 billion will go to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras this year, most of that sent by U.S. immigrants. The study estimated $18 billion would be sent to those countries in 2005.

Costly illegals. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere are costing us $10 billion a year in services. Should these same people be given citizenship, that cost is expected to climb to $100 billion a year, since most of them are low-paid and would be entitled to health care subsidies, welfare, etc.

Benefits off-limits to illegals. Illegal immigrants can legitimately access a limited range of taxpayer-funded services. Federal law and U.S. Supreme Court rulings say they're entitled to K-12 public education and assistance in a public safety emergency. If they're poor, they're entitled to emergency medical care, including childbirth, and legal representation if they're accused of a crime. … [However] … Illegal immigrants are not entitled to most social services such as welfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), food stamps, public housing assistance and most Medicaid coverage.

[And that's why they use counterfeit identification.]

Illegal Students Drain Resources While Citizens Pay, Says Reform Spokesman. An immigration reform advocate says because of an influx of illegal aliens enrolling in North Carolina public schools, important resources are being taken away from the dependents of American citizens. The Hispanic advocacy group El Pueblo estimates that as many as 1,450 illegal aliens graduated from North Carolina high schools this spring. Meanwhile, more than $400 million is spent on programs for English as a second language and limited English-proficient students in North Carolina schools each year.

Immigration Costs: The National Research Council has estimated that the net fiscal cost of immigration ranges from $11 billion to $22 billion per year, with most government expenditures on immigrants coming from state and local coffers, while most taxes paid by immigrants go to the federal treasury. The net deficit is caused by a low level of tax payments by immigrants, because they are disproportionately low-skilled and thus earn low wages, and a higher rate of consumption of government services, both because of their relative poverty and their higher fertility.

Current Numbers: During the 1990s, an average of more than 1.3 million immigrants — legal and illegal — settled in the United States each year. Between January 2000 and March 2002, 3.3 million additional immigrants have arrived. In less than 50 years, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that immigration will cause the population of the United States to increase from its present 288 million to more than 400 million.

Wages and Poverty: Because immigration increases the supply of U.S. labor, it reduces wages or makes jobs more scarce for natives. Job competition between immigrants and natives is especially fierce at the bottom of the labor market, because so many immigrants are employed in the low-skilled/low-wage segments of the economy. When the average American wage exceeds the average Mexican wage by a factor of ten, even the most menial American job can be a forceful inducement to emigrate.

Population and Environment: Since 1970, more than 68 million people have been added to the U.S. population. This surge is especially notable in light of the fact that Americans have been below replacement level fertility since 1972. A majority of this growth is thus derived from immigrants and their children.

Illegal Immigration's Financial Impact. A large part of the problem with mass migration is that the U.S. often winds up importing much of the world's poverty. The same argument can be made regarding the world's criminal elements.

Currently, one in four uninsured persons in the United States is an immigrant.
Nearly half of immigrants either have no health insurance or have it provided by taxpayers.
In some hospitals, almost two-thirds of operating costs are generated by illegal immigrants.
More than half of Hispanics, the nation's largest immigrant group, are without insurance.*

It's about time!
A Proposed Ban on Wire Transfers by Illegal Aliens. A candidate running for a vacant congressional seat representing North San Diego county has unveiled a plan to ban wire transfers by illegal aliens to Mexico. In a March 4 press conference near the U.S.-Mexico border, Republican Howard Kaloogian said he believes his proposal "will remove a major incentive for illegal immigration and increase national security."

Banks seek stake in billions sent home. Almost 200 million migrants worldwide sent home more than $167 billion to developing countries last year — more than twice the level of international aid — according to the World Bank. Latin American migrants working in the United States will send home about $45 billion this year, up from some $30 billion in 2004, according to the Washington, D.C.-based economic and social development lender Inter-American Development Bank. Texas ranks second in the nation, behind California, for remittances to Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Illiberal aspects of illegal immigration rarely voiced. Billions of dollars are sent annually back to Mexico from its citizens who come to the United States — one of the largest sources of foreign exchange for the Mexican economy. But that cash does not come out of thin air. If such transfers aid depressed parts of Mexico, they also drain capital from struggling immigrant communities in the United States.

Nearly 50,000 foreigners in US prisons; mostly Mexicans. The number of foreign nationals in US prisons grew by 15 percent over three years, said a government study, which traced the growing US prison population.

Federal government will pay medical bills for illegal immigrants. Health care providers can charge the government for emergency care provided to illegal aliens beginning Tuesday 5/10/2005].

One Mexican in every 11 emigrates to U.S.. One in every 11 people born in Mexico and still alive is a U.S. resident, and about half of these immigrants crossed the border illegally, according to a comprehensive report released Tuesday [6/14/2005].

Illegals estimated to number 18 to 20 million. Could there be 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. today? That's the estimate of a business analyst who has studied the impact of the nation's underground economy.

Texas Offers In-state Tuition for Illegal Aliens. The Washington Legal Foundation charged that Texas is violating federal law by offering in-state college tuition rates to illegal aliens who live in Texas, while denying those same rates to nonresident U.S. citizens.

No Escaping a Lawsuit. The families of seven illegal immigrants who died after being abandoned in a sealed truck trailer while being smuggled into the United States are suing the trailer manufacturer in federal court. Specifically, the relatives claim that the manufacturer is liable for the deaths because there "were no warnings, instructions, decals or other means of warning of the dangers of transporting individuals inside the trailer."

Border Patrol grabs 1.15 million illegals in 2004. U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 1.15 million illegal aliens last year trying to sneak into the United States between the nation's land ports of entry, more than 3,100 a day — a 24 percent increase over the year before. The agents, part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), also made 8,577 drug seizures, confiscating 1.4 million pounds of illegal narcotics with an estimated street value of $1.62 billion, according to the figures released by the Department of Homeland Security.

Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget: This study is one of the first to estimate the total impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Most previous studies have focused on the state and local level and have examined only costs or tax payments, but not both. Based on Census Bureau data, this study finds that, when all taxes paid (direct and indirect) and all costs are considered, illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion in 2002. [The authors] also estimate that, if there was an amnesty for illegal aliens, the net fiscal deficit would grow to nearly $29 billion.

Problem bears feasting on illegal entrants' trash. At least four bears have been destroyed this summer after encroaching on humans in southeastern Arizona, and biologists say the trash dumped by illegal immigrants is part of the problem because it acclimates the animals to people.

The criminal raid on Social Security: Unbelievably, the White House is trying to convince us to embrace this global ripoff because it "rewards work." No, it rewards criminal behavior. The plan will siphon off the hard-earned tax dollars of American workers who may never see a dime of their confiscated earnings and fork it over to foreigners guilty of at least four acts of federal law-breaking: crossing the border illegally, working illegally, engaging in tax fraud and using bogus documents.

The strain on America's health care system:

Child birth calls ring in from border. San Diego Fire and Rescue crews were called to the San Ysidro border crossing for nearly 160 childbirth emergencies in 2012 — one almost every other day. [...] There are no statistics on how many of the moms being rushed by emergency crews to local hospitals are U.S. citizens, as federal laws prohibit emergency crews and hospital teams from asking. Babies born under the circumstances are U.S. citizens as a birthright.

Centennial Man Calls $7,000 Per Hour E.R. Bill 'Outlandish'. [Scroll down] Dr. Mark Earnest, a professor of medicine and health policy with the University of Colorado, said families like the Josephs also face inflated bills to compensate for all the patients who pay nothing. "If you've got 30 to 40 percent of the people who pay nothing, the people who do have some ability to pay pay a lot more to cover the other guys." Earnest says estimates of the people who use ER services but cannot afford to pay runs between 30 and 70 percent.

Arizona taxpayers pay for 53% of births. Arizona taxpayers foot the bill for the delivery of more than half of all babies born here, a growing trend with a $200 million-plus annual price tag that has caught state leaders off guard — even though the numbers have been rising for more than a decade.

Health care law ignores illegal immigrants; hospitals may get stuck with the bill. Hospital leaders told The New York Times they're wary of terms in the health care reform law that will eventually halve the amount of money they receive for caring for uninsured people without addressing the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, most of them lacking insurance. Emergency rooms are required to take in all patients, insured or uninsured, under a federal law signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Sneak across the border and get a free checkup!
Illegal Aliens Find Detention in U.S. May Be Good for Their Health. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is touting the "quality" medical care it provides for 15,000 illegal aliens who are housed at 21 detention facilities throughout the nation. "A detainee's health care begins the moment they walk through the facility's doors," said Dr. Jon Krohmer, assistant director for ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC).

Illegal Aliens, Endless Health Care Bills. An illegal alien just completed 12 surgeries and a record 374-day stay in a Fresno hospital. For him, it was "free" health care. But for taxpayers, the hospital and patients who ultimately pay, it's another big bill.

HHS Awards $8.5 Million in ObamaCare Money to 25 Migrant Health Centers. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law. Of that $28.8 million, "approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers," Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS.

Outwitting Lethal Government Policies. [Scroll down] If you live on the Texas border, or in fact anywhere in the Southwest, pay close attention to epidemics breaking out across the line. As of 2010, we may add southern Florida to this list. In July 2010, the Centers for Disease Control released the results of a study showing that up to 20% of the inhabitants of the Keys had been exposed to Dengue Fever, also known as "bonebreak fever" for the pain it causes. Dengue is returning to endemic status in Texas after being banished by DDT.

Whose responsibility is the health care of illegal immigrants? Fifty-one people — nearly all illegal immigrants — are facing a "life-or-death limbo" after a cash-strapped Atlanta charity hospital decided it must stop providing them free kidney dialysis treatments that were costing the hospital (or rather taxpayers) $50,000 per year.

The "Myth" that Health Care Reform Won't Cover Illegal Aliens, Is Itself a Myth. Nowhere does H.R. 3200 say that illegal aliens are ineligible to enroll in the proposed "public option." To the contrary, Section 202 provides that "all individuals" are eligible for benefits offered through the government exchange unless they are enrolled in another health insurance plan.

Obamacare for Illegal Aliens. Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America — except those who break our immigration laws. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee defeated an amendment that would have prevented illegal aliens from using the so-called "public health insurance option." Every Democrat on the panel voted against the measure.

More about socialized medicine in general and Obamacare in particular.

Myths, Lies and Stupidity About Health Care: Here's a quick profile of those who are uninsured. Ten million of the uninsured are illegal immigrants — which, by the way, doesn't mean they don't get health care. Walk into virtually any emergency room in California and illegal immigrants are the bulk of the population. Education costs and health care costs for illegal immigrants compose between 16.4 percent and 20.5 percent of California's budget deficit.

California counties cut healthcare to illegal immigrants. Forced to slash their budgets, some California counties are eliminating nonemergency health services for illegal immigrants — a move that officials acknowledge could backfire by shifting the financial burden to emergency rooms.

Study: Illegal immigrants' care costs state $677 million. The state of Texas and local hospital districts spent an estimated $677 million to provide health care to illegal immigrants in a year, a new study says. The survey, issued by the Texas Jealth and Human Services Commission, said that most of the money — $597 million — was spent by local hospital districts for the immigrants' care during the state's fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, 2007.

Immigrant case puts hospital in a bind. A Wichita hospital is in a quandary — trying to find long-term care for a charity case involving a patient who is an illegal immigrant. One local health provider says problems such as this could become more common because of the growing number of illegal immigrants in Kansas. … The hospital usually admits about 40 people a month. Patients typically stay about 25 days, said Billy Blasingame, the hospital's chief executive. The patient, a middle-aged woman, has been at the hospital almost four months.

Illegal Immigrant Births — At Your Expense. [A Mexican woman is] rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section — a $4,700 medical procedure that won't cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid. She gave birth to a healthy, 8½ pound baby boy — born in America. … It's a "better" life … that American taxpayers help pay for. Take healthcare for example — an estimated $1.1 billion per year for undocumented men, women and children, according to the Rand Corporation.

This problem comes from North and South.
Canadian Invasion: The United States and Canada share the longest unprotected border in the world, and Toronto's Globe and Mail has a story illustrating why that is so dangerous: More than 100 Canadian women with high-risk pregnancies have been sent to United States hospitals over the past year — in what a doctors' group attributes to the lack of a national birthing plan.

Illegal residents turned away in Tarrant. JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Tarrant County's hospital district, has for several years told patients who live in the country illegally to find non-emergency care elsewhere. Galveston's hospital district may soon join those ranks when it comes to cancer care because it is unable to meet demand with limited state funds.

Texas hospital may drop illegals' care. The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants in order to cut costs. The UTMB set aside about $12 million in this year's $1.4 billion annual budget to treat indigent cancer patients, but that isn't enough to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.

'Border baby' boom strains South Texas. First it was a trickle, now it's a flood. Rising numbers of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are streaming into Texas to give birth, straining hospitals and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, health officials say.

Judge allows lawsuit after illegal immigrant denied medical care dies. The family of a now-deceased illegal immigrant who said he was denied medical care for cancer can sue the federal government for damages, a federal judge ruled, calling the allegations "beyond cruel and unusual" punishment. Francisco Castaneda, a Salvadoran immigrant, was denied a biopsy for a painful lesion for 11 months, despite the recommendation of several doctors, according to government records cited by a judge.

Undocumented Immigrants' Childbirth Is Top Emergency Medicaid Expense. The lion's share of Emergency Medicaid expenditures in North Carolina covers undocumented immigrants' pregnancy and labor complications, a trend that's probably occurring in other states, a new study found. The findings are one of the first close-up looks at the health care needs of the growing numbers of immigrants in the United States, and they appear to question the monetary costs of excluding undocumented immigrants from routine health care, especially prenatal care.

Medi-Cal funds 100,000 illegal births. The [California] Medi-Cal program is now paying for the delivery of about 100,000 children born to illegal immigrants each year. Such births and related expenses account for more than $400 million of the nearly $1 billion Medi-Cal spends annually on health care for undocumented people, covering everything from pregnancy tests to postpartum checkups. The fact that children born here have a U.S. citizenship "birthright" angers anti-illegal immigration groups.

Los Angeles Emergency Rooms are Full of Illegal Immigrants. Sixty percent of the county's uninsured patients are not U.S. citizens. More than half are here illegally. About 2 million undocumented aliens in Los Angeles County alone are crowding emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor.

Why Mexican Hospital Emergency Rooms Aren't Swamped: Emergency rooms in American hospitals are being overwhelmed by uninsured patients who don't pay for medical care. … A significant portion of these patients are immigrants, often illegal aliens. The complicating factor is a law known as EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985) which forbids emergency rooms from refusing service to anyone, regardless of ability to pay.

Bush Administration Wants Flu Shots For Illegal Immigrants. The Bush Administration has indicated it wants doctors, clinics, and hospitals to provide flu immunizations to illegal immigrants. In an interview with KFOX-TV, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt was asked if the federal government has any safeguards to prevent illegal immigrants from catching the flu. Leavitt responded by saying doctors should give flu shots to "every person."

ER Overload. A survey of the research available shows that uninsured illegal immigrants are an imponderable burden on our nation's hospitals, in particular emergency rooms. As they are with respect to other statistics regarding illegal immigration, the numbers on healthcare are startling. Calling them frightening would not overstate the matter. But the figures that study after study disclose are also appalling for what they show about the political elite's steadfast refusal to stop illegal immigration.

A Resurgence of Deadly Diseases. Diseases once thought to be nearly eradicated in America, such as tuberculosis and leprosy, are now rising as illegal immigrants bring their health problems to our country. Illegal immigrants not only drain American healthcare resources but also present a new threat: diseases once thought nearly erased from the American medical dictionary, as well as new ones never before seen, are emerging across the country.

A stay-at-home solution: The March 12 Washington Post Magazine profiled Daniel Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant in the D.C. area. … The magazine describes Rodriguez cutting a 2-by-4 with a circular saw and no protective gear. "He pushes the saw across the wood, its blade spinning inches from his foot," the story reports. One miscalculation and he'll be in the hospital. Illegals tend to gravitate toward dangerous jobs, and if they fall off a roof or saw off a toe, it's taxpayers who get stuck with the medical bill.

Disease, unwanted import. Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come. In addition to a list of imported diseases that includes tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, officials fear what could happen if the avian flu, which is flourishing among poultry in Southeast Asia, mutates so that it is capable of human-to-human transmission through casual contact.

Domino Effect Feared From Closures of Emergency Rooms. Los Angeles County, which has lost six emergency rooms in a little over a year, is on the brink of a far more serious problem, facing more closures that could jeopardize emergency care for tens of thousands of residents, according to public officials and independent analysts.

Mass Immigration Imports New, Unknown Diseases. Among the many benefits of the mass immigration the Open Borders Lobby has invited into the country are the diseases that would probably all but have vanished from American and Western society but for the presence of Third World immigrants.

Medi-Cal pays for over 100,000 births by undocumented women. More than 100,000 undocumented women each year bear children in California with expenses paid by Medi-Cal, according to state reports. Such births and related expenses account for more than $400 million of the nearly $1 billion that the program spends annually on health care for illegal immigrants in California, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing state reports.

Man crisscrossed border with TB. A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Illegal Immigrants and Health Care Reform. [Scroll down] I should point out that all of us already pay the costs of health care for illegal immigrants — through emergency room visits, Emergency Medicaid, hidden fees by hospitals, workplace safety incidents, and the like. This idea that we all aren't paying for this one way or another is non-reality-based.

Freeloaders and the burden on the welfare system:

"Society's safety net" has become a hammock for many people, and some percentage of the people who immigrate to the U.S. are only coming here for a free ride.

Prove You're Here Legally Before Getting Gov't Services, Voters Say. Most voters in the United States want stricter enforcement of immigration laws, and a vast majority say people should be required to prove they are in the country legally before receiving any federal, state or local services, according to a new poll.

Importing Poverty: My colleague Steve Camarota has published a look at welfare use by immigrant families with children, and it's pretty dire. Fifty-seven percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children (which is alarmingly high in itself). The highest rates are for families headed by an immigrant from the Dominican Republic (82 percent using welfare) and Mexico and Guatemala (75 percent). The states with the highest rates are Arizona, Texas, California, and New York (61-62 percent) — which, unfortunately, are also the top states of immigrant settlement. For immigrant households with four or more children, 81 percent are using welfare, as are 80 percent of households with children that are headed by an immigrant without a high school degree.

"Anchors" away. Any child born in the United States automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. He or she is instantly eligible for panoply of social services, food stamps and other forms of aid. When the child reaches the age of 21, he can petition to have his parents and siblings declared permanent residents. The so-called "anchor baby" phenomenon is a hidden trap door beneath any guest worker program, because a significant number of guest workers will have babies while in the United States and will thus elude any effort to send them home.

Just Shut Up, Go Home, and Take Your Kid with You. You would have thought the United States had committed some unforgivable crime against humanity if you listened to the howls of rage emitting from a horde of liberals whining over the fate of an illegal alien who played them for suckers. Her name is Elvira Arellano and whatever else she may be, she's a master propagandist….

Free School for Illegals: Time for a Supreme Court Review? [Scroll down] Chief Justice Burger, with Justices Rehnquist, White, and O'Connor, responded with a vigorous dissent: "[i]llegal aliens have no right whatever to be here, and the state may reasonably, and constitutionally, elect not to provide them with governmental services at the expense of those who are lawfully in the state"; "the constitution does not provide a cure for every social ill, nor does it vest judges with a mandate to try to remedy every social problem."

Welfare to kids of illegals at $276 million. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said Tuesday [4/25/2006] that he will tell Congress that close to 100,000 children of illegal immigrants in the county collect $276 million in annual welfare benefits. … Antonovich said 98,703 children of 57,458 undocumented parents received Cal-WORKS welfare checks in January, or a total of 156,161 recipients.

Welfare Is the Real Problem, Not Immigration. The idea of people sneaking into the country in order to soak the American taxpayer provokes anger. To be fair, though, native-born Americans are already soaking the American taxpayer and ought to provoke a similar anger. In fact, illegal immigrants account for only a tiny minority of those currently on the welfare rolls. Those who run the gauntlet of fences, guards, and environmental hardships to illegally enter the United States evince a measure of enterprise that would seem to make them unlikely to seek out welfare benefits. An illegal immigrant arriving in America is more apt to avoid contact with government authorities than to try to scam the system.

Immigration and the Welfare State: More and more of my constituents are asking me when Congress will address the problem of illegal immigration. The public correctly perceives that neither political party has the courage to do what is necessary to prevent further erosion of both our border security and our national identity. As a result, immigration may be the sleeper issue that decides the 2008 presidential election. … Amnesty for illegal immigrants is not the answer. Millions of people who broke the law by entering, staying, and working in our country illegally should not be rewarded with a visa. Why should lawbreakers obtain a free pass, while those seeking to immigrate legally face years of paperwork and long waits for a visa?

Stop the Mexico Raid on Our Social Security! RetireSafe Delivers 115,000 Petitions Opposing Social Security for Illegal Immigrants from Mexico. "Social Security is not a welfare program and it should not be turned into a foreign aid program," said RetireSafe President Charles Hardin.

Immigration and the welfare state. Over the past four decades the educational level of new immigrants has fallen steadily relative to that of native-born Americans …. Coupled with very high levels of out-of-wedlock birthrates (among foreign-born Hispanics, for example, the rate is 42.3%), the current illegal population fits the classic profile of a group that, if offered a ready route to citizenship, will consume billions more in welfare benefits than they will contribute in taxes.

The Remains of a California Day. [Scroll down] At noon, I drove into the local warehouse supermarket. When I checked out (and I had written about such incidents like this a near decade ago in Mexifornia), the checker and the woman behind me were trying to communicate in Spanish to instruct a young man and his wife (with four small children) about how to use his food stamp card (an anachronism since they look more like ATM plastic).

Contrary To Amnesty Supporters, Illegal Aliens Drain Social Security. A recent Rasmussen Reports survey revealed that voters remain concerned about Social Security and whether the system can deliver what the government has promised. According to the survey, 58% of U.S. voters lack confidence that the Social Security system will pay them their future benefits. Advocates for amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants like to claim that amnesty will "save" Social Security. They also claim that dramatically increased immigration levels will safeguard our retirements and those of our children because more people will pay into the system. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.

70% in Massachusetts Favor Ban on Public Benefits For Illegal Immigrants. Seventy percent (70%) of Massachusetts voters favor a proposal recently rejected by the state legislature that would stop illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that just 17% oppose the proposal to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining access to public housing, unemployment benefits, welfare or workers compensation. Thirteen percent (13%) more are not sure.

L.A. County welfare to children of illegal immigrants grows. Welfare payments to children of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County increased in July to $52 million, prompting renewed calls from one county supervisor to rein in public benefits to such families. The payments, made to illegal immigrants for their U.S. citizen children, included $30 million in food stamps and $22 million from the CalWorks welfare program, according to county figures released Friday by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

Bienvenido to Obamacare. The Obama administration has unveiled its new Spanish-language website, Cuidadodesalud.gov, as a companion to HealthCare.gov, to fully inform Americans about the new goodies in the Obamacare legislation that the President signed into law in March.

Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect Welfare. Surprise, surprise; Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies. ... Basically, the majority of households across the country benefitting from publicly-funded welfare programs are headed by immigrants, both legal and illegal. States where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62%), Texas, California and New York with 61% each and Pennsylvania (59%).

Illegal Immigrant Additional Child Tax Credit Fraud. Illegal Immigrants otherwise known as Undocumented Workers are using an IRS Tax Loophole to take advantage of the Additional Child Tax Credit to obtain tax refunds. This tax fraud is currently costing U.S. Taxpayers about 4 Billion dollars a year.

Hispanics perpetuate their own stereotypes.
Forget Immigration -- It's Big Government Hispanic Voters Want. A mind-blowing 75 percent of Hispanics tell Pew they want bigger government with more services. Contrast that with just 41 percent of the American public that says it wants bigger government with more services. This Hispanic love affair with big government isn't a short-term result of the Great Recession. It isn't a temporary product of the first-generation poverty; immigrants, legal or otherwise, have always struggled through in America. This affection for big government is uniquely cultural for Hispanics, and so strongly embedded that it apparently persists for generations.

Back to the Immigration Issues page
Jump to Poverty and Dependency in America
Back to the Home page