IMPACTS ON SOCIETY
Take you pick: schools, hospitals, parks, roads, urban
sprawl, police force, judicial system, water and sanitation systems, among
others. Anything that more people impact,
illegal aliens impact and often to a far greater degree, since they generally
aren’t paying for any of it. Also, many
spend as little as possible and send all their money home, as noted in a
December 2006 article by Daniel
González in The Arizona Republic, Poor
workers scrimp, send money home. Regardless, one of the most common comments from Americans
regarding the May 1, 2006 illegal alien rallies was how much less traffic was
on the highways in cities where the largest rallies occurred.
Before discussing the
specific impacts of illegal aliens in detail, we will take a look at some
information on immigration in general so we can put illegal immigration in its
proper perspective.
We often hear that
immigration is lower now than it was in the past. Well, that depends on the definitions of “lower” and “past” and
what the speaker includes in the term “immigration.” As the below chart illustrates, legal immigration is close to the
high peaks of one hundred years ago and is far greater than the levels of 1886
when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated
on Liberty Island.
Of course we all know that the Statue of Liberty
welcomes immigrants to the USA with Emma
Lazarus’ famous poem, The New Colossus, which contains the words:
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to
me, I lift
my lamp beside the golden door!
However, what you may not know is that the words were not affixed to the
Statue of Liberty until 1906 and author John T. Cunningham noted that "the Statue of
Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it
quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under [the statue]. However, it was [Lazarus' poem] that
permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming
immigrants." As noted by John
Cunningham, Emma Lazarus actually had other ideas.
In 2005 we allowed 1,122,373 legal immigrants permanent
resident status.
As the above chart illustrates the current legal
immigration into the USA with a current population of 300 million is similar to
the great waves of legal immigration around 1900 when the population was much
lower. In fact, in 1900 the
population was a rather sparse 63 million – about what the combined population
of just what California and Texas is today.
That chart,
however, does not display the illegal immigration component as the following
chart does:
Note that we now see that the numbers of immigrants are higher than they have ever been and the numbers of illegal immigrants is approaching the number of legal immigrants. Some data actually indicates that annual number of illegal aliens entering now exceeds legal immigrants.
The net result is that the overall immigrant population in the United States is now the highest it has ever been, by far, as noted in the following chart:
However, since we are now talking absolute numbers, it is worth noting
that the Wall Street investment firm Bear
Stearns published a report, The
Underground Labor Force is Rising to the Surface, in January 2005 which claims that
the illegal alien population was double the official government estimate
of 9 million and was closer to 20 million.
In October, 2006, Virginia Deane Abernethy, Ph.D. and Chairman of the
Population-Environment Balance of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
published a report, Census
Bureau Distortions Hide Immigration Crisis - Real Numbers Much Higher where she claims that “7.2 million aliens enter illegally each year” and notes
that the “Census Bureau is a willing participant to misinforming the public on
the state of the nation.” The article
reports: “…In February, 2002, a Border Patrol Supervisor of 27 years service
testified before Congress that the number of illegal aliens was several times
the CB estimate. He stated,
"According to various Mexican media and official Mexican government
sources, the country of Mexico has 18 million of its citizens residing
illegally in the United States at this very minute"(3) . Besides Mexicans, what of
Filipinos, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Eastern Europeans, Irish,
Brazilians, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Haitians illegally in the United States? Department of Education reports are also suggestive.
Comparing projected and actual enrollments for the latest years the data
were compiled yields this: The projected K-12 increase in public school
enrollments from 2002 to 2003 was 11,000 pupils. But "actual 2003
enrollments came in 339,000 above 2002's level - more than 30 times the
projected rise" (6). Where did these children come from, if not
illegal immigration? …Moreover, many foreigners enter supposedly for a
visit but never leave. In 1992, approximately 150,000 more foreign passengers
arrived in US airports than left (10). USA TODAY reports that "at least
3.8 million" illegal aliens arrived legally but remained after visas
expired (11). This could be, in part, H1B workers who
stayed - contrary to the terms of their visa -- after termination of their job. Conservatively, assume that just 5 million - rather
than 7.2 million plus visa over-stayers - actually enter the United States each
year. Of these 5 million, assume that
40 percent remain indefinitely. This
calculation suggests that 2 million illegal aliens melt permanently into the
U.S. population annually. If 60 percent
stay, then approximately 3 million new illegal aliens remain in the United
States annually. Compare that to the Census
Bureau's puny estimate of 500,000 illegal aliens staying annually! …Our estimated low figure, 2 million illegal aliens
staying annually, more than explains why the 2000 census required the CB to
show a leap of 12 million in the population in one year. The high figure of 3 million strongly
suggests that the census missed a good many!
That is likely: What illegal alien family member will hop up and say,
"Count me"? The question arises, does the CB have an agenda other
than factual reporting of population statistics? Errors since 1990 have all gone in the same direction:
Underestimation of real growth and growth rates. Moreover, the revisions and catch-up numbers are
underplayed. Who knew that the 2000
census forced a hike of 12 million in the estimated size of the
population? Rarely is the public told
that the U.S. population is growing very fast - by far the fastest rate of any
developed country in the world. Or
that the growth rate itself appears to be growing? The Census Bureau's misinformation appears consistent
with intent to soothe a public that is becoming alarmed at the scale of
immigration and the rapidity of population growth. Underestimates also go far to discredit those who call for a
moratorium on both legal and illegal immigration, and for ending automatic
citizenship awarded to children born in the United States to illegal alien
parents. Accurate reporting of numbers
would make ending birth-right citizenship politically compelling and would strengthen
the argument for a catch-our-breath moratorium on legal immigration. One may fairly conclude that the Census Bureau is a
willing participant to misinforming the public on the state of the nation. Perhaps this is a strategy designed to
re-direct and lull voters into complacency so that they forgive their
Representatives and Senators who legislate in favor of illegal aliens and
massive legal immigration, rather than in the interest of citizens of the
United States. Massive Undercounting Begins with Legal Immigration Throughout the 1990s, the CB has nailed legal
immigration at approximately 1 million annually. This entails omitting the
annual refugee number, which has varied from 45,000 to 142,000 and the asylumee
number, approximately 150,000 annually.
Arrivals under student programs and the H1B and other employer-sponsored
programs and their families, and "extended voluntary departure"
categories are also ignored, although these "temporary" visa
categories often become de facto permanent residents. Summing annual growth figures [1.7 million natural
increase, 1 million legal immigrants, and 2 or 3 million illegal aliens who
stay], one sees that, each year, the population grows by 4.7 to 5.7
million. The annual growth rate is
between 1.4 and 1.7 percent. If 1.4
percent, the population doubling time is 50 years. The rate of growth has itself been growing. If
acceleration of the growth rate continues, we are on trend to pass the 1
billion mark in approximately 70 years. Illegal immigration information from US Border Report –
Migration Across the Mexican Border also supports DR. Abernethy’s much
higher numbers. If Bear
Stearns is correct, the immigration numbers would double. If Dr. Abernethy is correct, the numbers skyrocket. In any case, and using “official” numbers, the percent
of immigrants was higher about 100 years when the population was about one
fifth of what it is today but the number of immigrants is now far
greater than ever experienced in US history.
With an already crowded nation, the additional illegal immigrants are
negatively impacting American society.
Part of the reason for this is the difference in times between the two
great waves of immigration. The basic problem with
immigration of today is that it is not your grandparents’ immigration. The situation is different, society is
different, the country is not under-populated, and the illegal immigrants have
different skills and motivations. And
your grandparents didn’t receive welfare payments. As reported
in the June 13, 2006 issue of Newsweek in an article, The
Hard Truth of Immigration, by Robert J.
Samuelson: “…Being brutally candid means recognizing
that the huge and largely uncontrolled inflow of unskilled Latino workers into
the United States is increasingly sabotaging the assimilation process. and “…no society has a boundless capacity to
accept newcomers, especially when many are poor and unskilled.” (emphasis
added) As noted by How Unskilled Immigrants Hurt Our Economy: “…Since the mid-1960s,
America has welcomed nearly 30 million legal immigrants and received perhaps
another 15 million illegals, numbers unprecedented in our history. These immigrants have picked our fruit,
cleaned our homes, cut our grass, worked in our factories, and washed our cars. But they have also crowded into our hospital
emergency rooms, schools, and government-subsidized aid programs, sparking a
fierce debate about their contributions to our society and the costs they
impose on it. ...these workers add
little to our economy, they come at great cost, because they are not economic
abstractions but human beings, with their own culture and ideas—often at odds
with our own. Increasing numbers of
them arrive with little education and none of the skills necessary to succeed
in a modern economy. Many may wind up
stuck on our lowest economic rungs, where they will rely on something that
immigrants of other generations didn’t have: a vast U.S. welfare and
social-services apparatus that has enormously amplified the cost of
immigration. Just as welfare reform and
other policies are helping to shrink America’s underclass by weaning people off
such social programs, we are importing a new, foreign-born underclass. As famed free-market economist Milton
Friedman puts it: “It’s just obvious that you can’t have free immigration and a
welfare state.” …Hampering
today’s immigration debate are our misconceptions about the so-called first
great migration some 100 years ago, with which today’s immigration is often
compared. We envision that first great
migration as a time when multitudes of Emma Lazarus’s “tired,” “poor,” and
“wretched refuse” of Europe’s shores made their way from destitution to
American opportunity. …But that argument
distorts the realities of the first great migration. Though fleeing persecution or economic stagnation in their homelands,
that era’s immigrants - Jewish tailors and seamstresses who helped create New
York’s garment industry, Italian stonemasons and bricklayers who helped build
some of our greatest buildings, German merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans -
all brought important skills with them that fit easily into the American
economy. Those waves of immigrants -
many of them urban dwellers who crossed a continent and an ocean to get here -
helped supercharge the workforce at a time when the country was going through a
transformative economic expansion that craved new workers, especially in its
cities …Many of these
immigrants quickly found a place in our economy, participating in the workforce
at a higher rate even than the native population. Their success at finding work sent many of them quickly up the
economic ladder: those who stayed in America for at least 15 years, for
instance, were just as likely to own their own business as native-born workers
of the same age, one study found.
Another study found that their American-born children were just as
likely to be accountants, engineers, or lawyers as Americans whose families had
been here for generations.” What the
newcomers of the great migration did not find here was a vast social-services
and welfare state. They had to rely on
their own resources or those of friends, relatives, or private, often ethnic,
charities if things did not go well. ….The flood of immigrants, both legal and illegal, from
countries with poor, ill-educated populations, has yielded a mismatch between
today’s immigrants and the American economy and has left many workers poorly
positioned to succeed for the long term.
Unlike the immigrants of 100 years ago, whose skills reflected or
surpassed those of the native workforce at the time, many of today’s arrivals,
particularly the more than half who now come from Central and South America,
are farm workers in their home countries who come here with little education or
even basic training in blue-collar occupations like carpentry or machinery The article goes on to note: …”Because so much of
our legal and illegal immigrant labor is concentrated in such fringe, low-wage
employment, its overall impact on our economy is extremely small. A 1997 National Academy of Sciences study
estimated that immigration’s net benefit to the American economy raises the
average income of the native-born by only some $10 billion a year - about $120
per household. And that meager
contribution is not the result of immigrants helping to build our essential
industries or making us more competitive globally but instead merely delivering
our pizzas and cutting our grass.
Estimates by pro-immigration forces that foreign workers contribute much
more to the economy, boosting annual gross domestic product by hundreds of
billions of dollars, generally just tally what immigrants earn here, while
ignoring the offsetting effect they have on the wages of native-born workers. If
the benefits of the current generation of migrants are small, the costs are
large and growing because of America’s vast range of social programs and the
wide advocacy network that strives to hook low-earning legal and illegal
immigrants into these programs. A 1998
National Academy of Sciences study found that more than 30 percent of
California’s foreign-born were on Medicaid—including 37 percent of all Hispanic
households - compared with 14 percent of native-born households. The foreign-born were more than twice as
likely as the native-born to be on welfare, and their children were nearly five
times as likely to be in means-tested government lunch programs. Native-born households pay for much of this,
the study found, because they earn more and pay higher taxes - and are more
likely to comply with tax laws. Recent
immigrants, by contrast, have much lower levels of income and tax compliance
(another study estimated that only 56 percent of illegals in California have
taxes deducted from their earnings, for instance). The study’s conclusion: immigrant families cost each native-born
household in California an additional $1,200 a year in taxes. Immigration’s
bottom line has shifted so sharply that in a high-immigration state like
California, native-born residents are paying up to ten times more in state and
local taxes than immigrants generate in economic benefits. Moreover, the cost is only likely to grow as
the foreign-born population - which has already mushroomed from about 9 percent
of the U.S. population when the NAS studies were done in the late 1990s to
about 12 percent today – keeps growing.
And citizens in more and more places will feel the bite, as immigrants
move beyond their traditional settling places.
From 1990 to 2005, the number of states in which immigrants make up at
least 5 percent of the population nearly doubled from 17 to 29, with states
like Arkansas, South Dakota, South Carolina, and Georgia seeing the most
growth. This sharp turnaround since the
1970s, when immigrants were less likely to be using the social programs of the
Great Society than the native-born population, says Harvard economist Borjas,
suggests that welfare and other social programs are a magnet drawing certain
types of immigrants - nonworking women, children, and the elderly - and keeping
them here when they run into difficulty. Almost
certainly, immigrants’ participation in our social welfare programs will
increase over time, because so many are destined to struggle in our
workforce. Despite our cherished view
of immigrants as rapidly climbing the economic ladder, more and more of the new
arrivals and their children face a lifetime of economic disadvantage, because
they arrive here with low levels of education and with few work
skills—shortcomings not easily overcome.” I would strongly
suggest you read the entire article
as this is a MUST READ! Putting all this in perspective, read the March 2003 report
from the Center for Immigration Studies, Back Where We Started - An Examination of Trends
in Immigrant Welfare Use Since Welfare Reform, by Steven A. Camarota
where he notes: “The primary
finding of this report is that welfare use by immigrant households remains much
higher than that of natives. However,
the mix of programs used by immigrants, and natives for that matter, has
changed significantly since 1996. Use
of TANF and food stamps has declined significantly among the foreign-born since
1996, while Medicaid use has risen somewhat. The enormous and growing cost of
Medicaid means that there has likely been little or no savings for
taxpayers. This is especially true when
one considers the increase of 750,000 additional immigrant households using
welfare programs. Immigrant households account for 18 percent of all households
using the welfare system, up from just 14 percent in 1996. Thus in the most
important sense, welfare reform with regard to immigrants seems to have failed.
Or at the least, it has not generated the kind of savings for taxpayers that
its proponents hoped it would. Immigrant welfare use remains high and they
comprise a growing share of the welfare case load, mainly because a very large
share have little education and the American economy offers very limited
opportunities to such workers.” The report includes the following
chart: The report also notes that
immigrants from different countries or regions use more or less welfare than
others, although, this probably has to do more with the average education
levels of the immigrants from those countries or regions. Given the large numbers of
immigrants currently in the USA, one of the more discouraging aspects of the
study was: Welfare Use Over Time. Bob Brown notes in a guest opinion article in The Billings Gazette, Montana
can plan ahead for Hispanic population wave: “As New York
Times columnist Paul Krugman noted, "poorly educated Mexican immigrants
increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of
less-skilled Americans." Ranking
45th among the states in per-capita income, Montanans need to realize that they
could soon be competing for their jobs with undocumented immigrants. According to the Pew Hispanic Center,
undocumented immigrants currently make up 27 percent of the national workforce
of drywall and ceiling tile installers, 21 percent of roofers, 17 percent of
cleaning and maintenance workers, and 11 percent of food preparation and
service workers The costs to
our country of coping with this great escape are overwhelming. A minimum of 12 million, and perhaps as many
as 20 million, Hispanics are in our country illegally. Court decisions and the selective enforcement
of our laws have allowed many to remain here and receive the benefits of U.S.
citizens. These include cash payments,
food stamps, free medical care and all other tax-supported public
services. The crime rate among
undocumented Mexican immigrants is three to four times the national
average. The cost of schooling, health
care, welfare, Social Security and prisons - plus the additional pressure on
land, water, and power resources - greatly exceeds the taxes undocumented
immigrants pay. A Rice University study recently calculated that in 2006 the net annual
cost of legal and illegal immigration will add up to $108 billion. The late Nobel
Economist Milton Friedman observed, "It's
just obvious that you can't have free immigration and the welfare state." But as our
national debt mounts, and future Americans face a crushing burden, we continue
to try to defy the obvious.” (emphasis
and separation added) Or can you? As
recently reported in the LA Times by in an article by Jordan Rau, Gov.
to seek insurance for all children: “SACRAMENTO —
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose that all Californian children,
including those in the state illegally, be guaranteed medical insurance as part
of the health-care overhaul he intends to unveil next week, according to
officials familiar with the plan. If enacted by
the Legislature, his proposal would affect about 763,000 children who now lack
insurance. Although the administration
has not revealed details of how it would pay for such a program, officials
estimate that extending insurance to all children could cost the state as much
as $400 million a year. That would be a
small piece of Schwarzenegger's stated goal: to ensure medical coverage for all
of the 6.5 million Californians who now have none. Experts say that could cost upward of $10 billion a year.”
However, as
noted in an article by Edward Sifuentes in the North County Times, California's
Illegal Aliens Cost Taxpayers Nearly $9 Billion A Year, “a bottom of the range number,” Californians are already
paying a hefty price for all their illegal alien guests. Add
in another $10 billion more and that is now $19 billion. If one third of Californian’s pay taxes that
is about $2,000 per taxpayer. In The Hard Truth of
Immigration, Samuelson goes on to
note: “Consider a new study of Mexican
immigrants by Harvard economists George Borjas and Lawrence Katz. Mexicans are now the single largest group of
U.S. immigrants, 30 percent of the total in 2000. Indeed, the present Mexican immigration "is historically
unprecedented, being both numerically and proportionately larger than any other
immigrant influx in the past century," note Borjas and Katz. In 1920, for example, the two largest
immigrant groups - Germans and Italians - totaled only 24 percent of the
immigrant population. Some Mexican-Americans have made
spectacular gains, but the overall picture is dispiriting. Among men, about one
in 20 U.S. workers is now a Mexican immigrant; in 1970, that was less than one
in 100. The vast majority of Mexican
workers lacked a high-school diploma in 2000 (63 percent for men, 57 percent
for women). Only a tiny share had
college degrees (3 percent for men, 5 percent for women). By contrast, only 7 percent of native-born
U.S. workers were high-school dropouts and 28 percent were college graduates in
2000. Mexican workers are inevitably
crammed into low-wage jobs: food workers, janitors, gardeners, laborers, farm
workers. In 2000, their average wages were 41 percent lower than average U.S.
wages for men and 33 percent lower for women. But some things we do know - or can
infer. For today's Mexican immigrants
(legal or illegal), the closest competitors are tomorrow's Mexican immigrants
(legal or illegal). The more who
arrive, the harder it will be for existing low-skilled workers to advance. Despite the recession, immigration did not
much slow after 2000, says Camarota.
Not surprisingly, a study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that
inflation-adjusted weekly earnings for all Hispanics (foreign and
American-born) dropped by 2.2 percent in 2003 and 2.6 percent in 2004. "Latinos are the only major group of
workers whose wages have fallen for two consecutive years," said the
study. Similarly, the more poor
immigrants, the harder it will be for schools to improve the skills of their
children. The schools will be
overwhelmed; the same goes for social services.” A notable portion of rising health costs and insurance
premiums is due to subsidizing the medical costs of uninsured illegal aliens. Somebody has to pay for it. As detailed
in Illegal
aliens threaten U.S. medical system between
1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because half their services were
unpaid. Another 24 California hospitals
are on the verge of closure. Both PA
and NJ hospitals recently reported that they provided almost $2 billion in free
emergency and short term care services, in large part to illegal aliens. Minnesota county commissioners say that the
cost of medical care for uninsured immigrants is too high for local governments
to bear and they expect a $4.2 billion budget shortfall over the next two
years. NC has about $1.4 billion in
un-reimbursed hospital expenses annually.
The Texas Hospital Association directly spent $393 million treating
illegal aliens in 2002. One third of
the patients treated by the LA County Health System are illegal aliens and the
system is facing a $300 million deficient.
In AZ, the Southeast Arizona Medical Center had a $1 billion shortfall
and recently filled for bankruptcy. As reported
in the Montery Harold in December 2006 in Medi-Cal pays for 100,000
births yearly to undocumented immigrants: “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. California long has
been one of the more generous states in offering such benefits to illegal
immigrants, covering everything from pregnancy tests to postpartum checkups. Many illegal immigrants
who might otherwise shy away from government services view care associated with
childbirth as safe to seek. ''I wasn't afraid at all,'' said Sandra
Andrade, an illegal immigrant from Colombia who recently gave birth at a Los
Angeles hospital. ''I'd always heard
that pregnant women are treated well here.'' Maybe Jackson
Hole, an exclusive vacation area for the wealthy, can afford to pay for the
medical expenses of all the illegal aliens but many less affluent communities
can not. As noted in a
March 2005 article by William LaJeunese, L.A. Emergency Rooms
Full of Illegal Immigrants, on Fox News: “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. According to the
State Association of Hospitals,
California's public health system is "on the brink of collapse." In Los Angeles County, patients can wait
four days for a hospital bed and up to two years for gallbladder surgery. "The
hospitals are closing because of the totality of the uninsured," said Dr.
Thomas Garthwaite, director of the Los
Angeles County Health Department. "If you're legally a resident in California and you're poor,
you have a right to basic services." But some
critics say the taxpayers can't be the HMO
to the world. Last year, Los Angeles
County spent $340 million to treat the uninsured; that's roughly $1,000 for
every taxpayer.” A recent report
out of New Jersey, Illegal
immigrants straining health care - New
figures hint at cost of treating the state's migrant population,
notes: “The New Jersey Hospital
Association now estimates the state's 81 hospitals will spend between $275
million and $300 million treating uninsured illegal immigrants this year. That's less
than 2 percent of the $14 billion hospitals spend to treat patients. But for many hospitals already struggling
financially, officials say it's another factor pushing them deeper into the
red. And it hits some facilities harder than others -- particularly those in
urban areas. "We've
been watching this issue for four or five years now and it's a sleeping
giant," said hospital association spokesman Ron Czajkowski. "It is really starting to have a big
impact now." For more
information on the impact of illegal aliens on the nation’s medical system,
see: ·
Immigration
and Public Health ·
Illegal
Aliens and American Medicine · Illegal
aliens threaten U.S. medical system · Hospital to the World
Welcomes Illegal & Contagious Diseases As noted by Mary Engel in a recent LA Times
article, Immigrants'
health assessed in Rand study: “Research on successive generations
shows adolescents in Asian families surpass Latinos in adopting healthful
lifestyles. With each
generation in the United States, adolescents from Asian immigrant families
improved their health habits, while their Latino counterparts either showed no
improvement or developed worse habits, according to a Rand Corp. study released
Tuesday. The study,
which looked at diet, exercise, television viewing and other practices among at
least three generations of youths aged 12 to 17, could help explain rising
rates of obesity and diabetes among Latinos. Upon arrival
in the United States, Asian and Latino immigrants started out drinking fewer
sodas and eating more fruits and vegetables than whites, according to the
study, which was based on a survey of nearly 6,000 adolescents in 2001. After two
generations, Asian youths caught up with or surpassed whites in other measures,
including more hours exercising and fewer watching television. Meanwhile,
similar Latino adolescents had poorer diets than their Asian and white peers
and were less likely to use seat belts, bicycle helmets or sunscreen, according
to the study, published on the online edition of the American Journal of Public
Health. Previous
research has suggested that Latino immigrants overall tend to enjoy relatively
good health despite low incomes, a phenomenon known as the "Latino
paradox." But these findings
suggest that the effect could diminish with each generation. “Prosecutors
are overwhelmed by immigration court cases.
There were nearly 580,000 arrests of illegal immigrants in Arizona last
year, and less than 170,000 spaces available to hold detainees at any given
time. Even officials charged with
reducing illegal immigration and border crimes have increasingly turned against
efforts to secure the border, according to speakers at the Border Management
Summit, organized by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. "We are
now doing more public corruption cases than ever before," said Paul
Charlton, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. More bribes are being accepted, or at least more people are
getting caught taking them, he said. Hundreds of
assaults on Border Patrol agents also have been reported, Charlton said.” As noted in a
March 2005 article by William La Jeunesse of Fox News, Border States Grapple With Alien Criminals: “Many police officials in states along
the U.S.-Mexican border say they are fed up with the number of illegal aliens
populating American prisons, many of them incarcerated for violent crimes such
as murder, rape and robbery. Almost one in six inmates in Arizona,
for example, is a Mexican citizen. "It is a phenomenon that law
enforcement recognizes as a major problem," said one undercover detective,
who specializes in street gangs and goes by the name "Paco." "We have to put drug users and
violators in there, babysit them, and now we have to babysit illegal
aliens," said Maricopa County,
Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio whose
jails are 4,500 inmates over capacity. Most Mexicans cross the border looking
for work, but competition is fierce for jobs requiring uneducated, unskilled
labor. Many illegal immigrants find
themselves far from realizing their dreams. "We
come over here to find a better life," said inmate Tony Perez, a convicted
drug dealer. "Not all of us are
here to sell drugs or to do bad things, despite a few that do. But then again, doesn't everybody else from
every other country?" Arpaio's
Phoenix jails house 1,200
criminal aliens, including Perez, who by law should have been deported. But because of federal bureaucracy and an
overburdened system, only the most dangerous felons are actually sent home. Even
when deportation is ordered, about 60 percent of orders are ignored. “…illegal immigrants
have brought gangs, drugs, graffiti and murders to his city, draining police
and fire resources and taking services away from legal residents. People used to love the quiet, safe
life in Hazleton, which averaged one murder every seven years, Barletta
said. But suddenly the population swelled
from 23,000 to 31,000 people and residents were shocked by blighted homes,
overcrowded apartments, gang life, drug use and violence, he said. He attributed these to "illegal
aliens." All were Latino, he said.
The playground where Barletta played as a
kid became home to graffiti, he said. A
14-year-old undocumented Latino boy was arrested for shooting a gun there while
children played. Another illegal
immigrant shot a resident on a crowded sidewalk near a pizzeria on a Friday
night. A 16-year-old was beaten nearly
to death by people with baseball bats. "I was losing my city," he
said. "It was happening before my
eyes." Police and fire personnel, hospitals and
schools were having to devote much of their time and energy to help illegal
immigrants, Barletta said. He
repeatedly referred to Hazleton's residents as "terrified." Rates of HIV and tuberculosis rose. He said he decided to change that instead of
waiting for the federal government to fix the illegal immigration problem. "Enough is enough," he said.” To see the results, go to City's crackdown on illegals already being felt. Sheriff DeMarco
of Suffolk County, Long Island, NY noted
in the article Criminal
Alien Program Launched: “Two hundred
dollars a day. That is the estimated daily
cost to house one criminal in the county jail, according to Suffolk County
Sheriff Vincent DeMarco. Noting that
approximately 10% of the current jail population consists of illegal
immigrants, DeMarco is looking at new ways to ease the financial burden that is
hitting Suffolk taxpayers, who have been footing the bill for county prisoners
who are here illegally. “We’re
overcrowded, and we have to build a new jail, but part of the problem is that
we have so many illegal immigrants here,” DeMarco said last week. “They’re taking up jail space, and it’s
crushing us.” A July 2006 article, Illegal
Immigrants Filling Jails - Sheriff's department officials around state predict
thing will worsen in the Carolina Journal Print by Karen Welsh, identifies as a reality a number of the
collateral damages that this report has highlighted due to the massive influx
of illegal aliens: “RALEIGH - County jails throughout
North Carolina are stressed to the limit with illegal immigrants,
law-enforcement officials say. With the lack of immigration control
to deal with the estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants residing in the state, it
probably won’t be getting better anytime soon. Kevin Jastzabski, prison captain for
the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, said the number of Hispanics clogging the
county’s system is getting larger everyday.
“We do have a problem, and it is going to keep on growing,” he said “It
doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon.” Randy Jones, director of public
information for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department, said about 40 percent
of the inmates in the county’s jail are Hispanics and most of those have
illegally entered the country. “It’s draining the system, and you’re
looking at disaster,” he said. “Some of
the public is just coming to grips with (illegal immigrants). Right now, there’s not a way to solve the
problem until the government solves the problem. The issue needs to be addressed on both the federal and state
level.” It’s not racial discrimination, as
some have feared, but cultural differences that are putting most of the illegal
immigrants behind bars. The arrests are legitimate, Jones
said, and arise mostly from drug trafficking or driving under the influence of
alcohol in Alamance County. DUI is the
number one killer of Hispanic males in the state, he said. “There are cultural differences,” he
said. “They drink and drive. It’s culturally acceptable for them to do
that. When we bring them in, they are
usually double the legal limit. But
law-enforcement officers have been called racist and have been accused of
singling out Hispanics. Now the statistics
are showing we were probably right from the onset - law-enforcement-wise.” Illegal drug use and smuggling is also
a problem among those illegally living in North Carolina. Sheriff Steve Bizzell of Johnson County
addressed this topic during an Issues Forum on Illegal Immigration at the North
Carolina Leadership Conference 2006.
Eighty percent to 85 percent of drug trafficking in his jurisdiction is
committed by Hispanics, he said. A growing wave of gang-related
violence, including murders and armed robberies, is also cropping up in rural
counties. In an ABC News report, Sheriff
Jimmy Thornton said Sampson County is trying to deal with a surge of Hispanic
gangs. “They think they can set up their
gangs in these rural areas and really get by with more,” he said. “They don’t think that the small-town
departments have the sophistication and the ability or the personnel to handle
what they’re coming in here with.” Alamance County needs to implement a
Gang Intervention Unit because of the growth of Hispanic gangs, Jones said. Another problem plaguing jails
throughout the state are repeat offenders, who are virtually given a “get out
of jail free” card when they are deported.
It doesn’t matter whether they were apprehended for serious or violent
crimes, U.S. officials drop the charges and send them back to their own
country. It’s usually only a matter of
days before they cross the border back into the United States again under a
different name, officials said.” Don’t think these are just
SW border area incidents. Here’s one in
the Chicago area: One person
dead in pickup crash carrying 14 undocumented immigrants and another in the
Denver area: Driver
in Crash Held on Smuggling Counts where in this one there were “only” 11 in the van
with 4 dying. By the way, in the Denver
accident the illegal alien driver had been previously deported. Twice. The
emergency responder and medical costs on the local community for such accidents
are enormous. How
many events like these are happening nationally? Nobody knows because NOBODY TRACKS IT but it is growing with the illegal
alien population. As noted earlier in this
section, immigrants, legal and illegal are coming to this company in record
numbers. Obviously they impact the
population. How much? Dr. Steven Camarota, Director of Research for the Center
for Immigration Studies, wrote in a January 2001 paper: “Immigration has become the determinate factor in
population growth. The 11.2 million
immigrants who indicated they arrived between 1990 and 2000 plus the 6.4
million children born to immigrants in the United States during the 1990s are
equal to almost 70% of U.S. population growth over the last 10 years.”According
to Census Bureau figures, more than two-thirds of current and future population
growth is the result of immigration and illegal immigration is, by far, the
biggest component of immigration with the trend accelerating in the last few
decades. Remember that as the population of the United States just
crossed the 300,000,000 mark on October 17,
2006 quickly heading for 400 million, projected for as early as 2029. In considering the US population growth, it
is worth noting that the growth is currently exceeding the “high” growth
rates of most projections. At the present
rate, the US population will end up at about 500 million in 2050 and a
BILLION by 2100 and maybe even a Billion by 2075
if things don’t change real fast. Maybe Dr.
Abernethy is correct after all and the
numbers of illegal aliens flowing across the border are far higher that the
government is telling us. Regardless, the population of the USA is increasing at an
alarming rate. If SUSPS is right and the current population trends
continue, by the year 2020, the U.S. will add enough additional population to
create another NYC, LA, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, SF, Dallas, and
Denver, plus many more. Illegal
immigration is the biggest component of the population explosion. And you
think the freeways are crowded now? Go here
for the earth’s population counter. With all the
press given to the population crossing the 300th million mark, did
you see this:
Go to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Yearbook
of Immigration Statistics for detailed
information on both legal and illegal immigration.
The bottom line is that all
immigrants, legal and illegal, use welfare more than natives, uneducated immigrants
use welfare even more, and if illegal immigrants are legalized through amnesty
they will use twice as much welfare as they are currently using.
Figure 5 shows the percentage of immigrant households using
at least one major welfare program, based on how long the household head has
lived here. Consistent with previous
research, welfare use actually increases significantly with duration of stay in
the United States for at least 20 years after arrival. Even immigrant households headed by someone
who came to the country more than 20 years ago use welfare programs at a
significantly higher rate than natives.
In 2001, almost 21 percent of these long-time residents used welfare,
compared to less than 15 percent of natives.
This is true even though immigrants who arrived more than 20 years ago
are on average much older than the average native. To some extent,
assimilation for many immigrants means assimilation into the welfare system. This is the case both for immigrants in
general and for legal immigrants. (emphasis added)
That
is the impact in a large city.
Unfortunately smaller communities are also being impacted, often
disproportionately so as the costs need to be spread over a smaller base. As noted in Latino
births on rise at hospital:
“JACKSON
-- A growing number of Latino births has boosted the number of births at St.
John's Medical Center, which broke its record with 415 babies born last year.
While
the number of Caucasian births has held steady at around 277 to 300 per year,
the number of Latino births has increased from none in 1990 to more than 100
last year.
…There
is not really an increasing birth rate among the Caucasian population,"
she said. "The primary population
increase is due to the birth rate among the immigrant population."
The
hospital has averaged 277 births per year, with spikes of 327 in fiscal year
1999-00, 340 in 2002-03, and 366 in 2003-04.
"The demographics are changing," Day said. "There are more Latinas here of
childbearing age."
She
said Jackson Hole's first Latino immigrants were men who would leave their
families behind in Mexico. She said
their wives have begun moving to the area as well.”
Note
the trend?
"If
the trend we're seeing here, at least for Latino teens, is true," the case
that Latinos are doing better than expected "is probably not going to hold
out over generations," said Dr. Michele L. Allen, the study's lead author.
The
shear numbers of illegal aliens are overwhelming various public services. As noted in Arizona has
tough fight ahead against illegal immigration:
Christian Higuera, who is
serving time for assault, has fathered an illegitimate child, born in
Arizona. He said he hopes he will be
allowed to stay with his child, an American citizen, once he gets out of jail.”
Did
you note the attitudes expressed by the
illegal alien criminals?
As
reported in the Patriot News, Hazleton, PA, Mayor Louis J. Barletta recently said:
What
is now happening in Hazleton and Suffok Counties as well as smaller cities like
Raleigh, is routine in big cities. One
example, as noted in Study: Illegal aliens drain county funds
and as reported by
Troy Anderson in the Whittier Daily News, April 14, 2003:
“County
calls for layoffs, deep cut - Supervisors try to fill $804 million shortfall”
(link gone) where it was reported "Los Angeles County officials released a
$16.5 billion budget plan Monday calling for $467.2 million in cuts in spending
and 2,158 fewer employees and warned that far more drastic actions might become
necessary.... Antonovich said the cost
of illegal immigration is catching up with government.... Medical and mental- health services provided
to illegal immigrants total more than $360 million,' Antonovich said. 'Criminal aliens cost Los Angeles County
taxpayers more than $150 million.'"
The
“problem” is now becoming more common across the USA as illegal aliens move away from traditional illegal
immigrant enclaves and settle in mass newer areas.
In addition to
the costs for “regular traffic accidents” as detailed in the TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
section, a notable amount of medical and emergency services costs are incurred
from the horrific accidents that occur in the transporting of illegal
aliens. As an example, see Van
stuffed full of immigrants takes deadly roll, where 1 was killed
and 20 were injured and 9
suspected illegal immigrants killed in Yuma crash, where out of another 21 passengers stuffed
into a suburban, nine were killed.
Many of the injured go to local hospitals, sometimes for extended
periods of time, where the costs are also picked up by American taxpayers and
those paying for medical insurance.
Such accidents with no medical insurance coverage are disastrous for
small communities that have to absorb the cost of the highway carnage.
According to the U.S. immigration and
population growth report from SUSPS (Support US Population Stabilization -
an anti-immigration splinter group of the SIERRA Club that believes
uncontrolled immigration is the biggest impact on the environment), unless the
country's immigration policies change and change soon, the U.S. population will
double this century. 