|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Red Ink From Abroad: The Costs of Immigration to American Taxpayers
| Article
# : |
21891 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1994 |
4,070 Words |
| Author
: |
Donald Huddle and David Simcox
Donald Huddle is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Rice
University, Houston, and a longtime researcher and author on
immigrant costs. David Simcox is a senior fellow of the Center
for Immigration Studies, a Washington research and policy-
analysis group. |
California Gov. Pete Wilson publicly appealed to President Clinton twice in 1993 for federal help to cope with the budget-busting costs of mass legal and illegal immigration in his state. Wilson is just one of several governors to complain that Washington makes immigration and refugee policy but the states must pay for much of the federally mandated medical, educational, and social services for the newcomers. Wilson claimed the cost to California for just four state programs used by illegal aliens is $2.3 billion yearly.
Immigration, once heralded as a font of vitality and enrichment, since 1970 has increasingly meant mass importation of the poor and unskilled. By 1990, new legal immigrants were twice as likely to be below the U.S. government's poverty level as were the native-born.
A consistent principle of American immigration law since colonial times has been to turn away aliens who are likely to become a "public charge." While public charge immigration laws, originally set by the states and, after 1885, by the federal government, often failed to keep sizable numbers of immigrants off relief, the principle they stated was clear: American welcomes the immigrants, but it expects them to be supported by their own work or wealth or that of their sponsors--not by the taxpayers. The Supreme Court first upheld the principle of public charge laws in 1837.
While the last overhaul of our immigration law in 1990 kept the public charge provision, it has been reduced to near irrelevance by exceptions, loopholes, ambiguous definitions, and overriding court decisions. Refugees are entitled to public assistance upon arrival and, for many, for a number of years thereafter. The welfare dependency rate among refugees still exceeds 50 percent in some states. A quarter of all immigrants now enter illegally, thus avoiding any legally required test of their solvency or ability to become self-supporting. Some of the most costly forms of public services, such as free public education, are not considered public assistance under the law. The Supreme Court has guaranteed free public schooling to illegal immigrants.
So the cost of public assistance and services to immigrants has skyrocketed as immigration has swelled in the last twenty years. The same period has witnessed a steady expansion in the number, value, and breadth of coverage of public assistance programs. Perhaps most troubling is that the immigrants themselves have become more needy in the last two decades and more likely to earn low wages and to pay less in taxes.
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
