Illegal Immigration: Too Large a Burden on America

Illegal immigrants in the United States (US) have long been a topic of debate for policymakers and the public. The rationale about them is that they do not pay taxes; they add to the costs of taxpayers and use up funds in resources meant for assisting citizens and legal immigrants (the legal citizens). Therefore, they are perceived as a threat to the US economy. The true impacts of illegal immigrants on the US economy are discussed by debating over the economic benefits as well as economic costs of these immigrants. The negative impacts, discussed first, presented the decreases in low skilled jobs’ wage rates for legal immigrants and citizens instigated by illegal immigrants, the social services such as educations and healthcare that they

But amazingly, the flow of foreign-born is so large that immigrants currently account for a larger share of labor force growth than natives (“U.S. Immigration and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold”, 2003) When you do the math, it makes a good deal of sense to spend the little that we do—if not more—to keep them healthy (Karvounis, 2007). Care for undocumented immigrants represents a tiny fraction of the nation’s health care burden. They receive minimal care; some pay taxes. Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay taxes and some work “off the books” jobs as well (What Immigration Reform Could Mean To The US Economy, 2009). Illegal aliens provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund although they cannot claim benefits for this program (Immigrants’ Economic Contribution, 2009). Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent (“Undocumented Immigrants as Taxpayers”, 2007).

There are several arguments spotlighting the effect of illegal immigration on current rising health care cost. To this point, illegal immigrants and elected representatives across the country are unable to deny the increased costs placed upon the backs of American taxpayers due to the rise in health care and health care insurance cost. A bill initiated in Indiana will demand local hospitals create a report regarding the costs associated with treating illegal immigrants. Additionally, on a countrywide level, there is an ongoing endeavor to push illegal immigrant children toward federally funded Children’s Health Insurance by the governing body which in turn will effectively raise the current tax rates for all Americans. As an alternative, some policymakers are trying to use creative language in order to guarantee that illegal immigrants were blocked from obtaining health care services (Maxwell & Adolfo 324). For undocumented immigrants within the United States, acquiring health related services or care systematically increases the cost for American taxpayers across the board. Health care providers, Health care insurance companies and both the state and federally supplemented health care funds ( i.e. Medicaid) are forced to close the gap on the negative revenue return by increasing cost of services due to the excessive use and write off of public health care funds and services by illegal immigrants.

In the area of healthcare, the influx of illegals has proven to put a huge burden in all areas of the system. In California over the last decade many hospitals and emergency rooms have closed due to the illegals being treated there and not being able to pay the bills from the hospital. Right now, California out of the 50 states is last in the number of emergency rooms per million people (Jones, 2012, #6.). The insurance premiums for citizens keep increasing because when the illegal’s go to an emergency room

Opponents of illegal immigrants receiving healthcare services do not believe that illegal immigrants should have access to healthcare when so many Americans are uninsured. Illegal and undocumented immigrants, according to opponents, do not have a right to healthcare because it is a benefit that they do not deserve and that taxpayers cannot afford. Furthermore, illegal immigrants, who seek publicly funded healthcare services in the United States, cause a financial drain not only on the healthcare system but also the national economy. For example, FAIR (Federation for American Immigration) estimates that the cost of reimbursed medical care in California in 2004 was about $1.4 billion and $.85 billion in Texas, with one of the frequent costs to U.S. taxpayers being the delivery of babies to illegal alien mothers.

Today, the United States faces budget problems at local, state, and national levels. Soon, Congress will vote whether or not to raise the national debt ceiling, hoping to avoid defaults on loans and causing further harm to a slumping economy. While federal budget cuts will have to be made should the ceiling be lifted or not, cuts are also being felt on a local level, even in places like education. While not completely responsible for these problems, there are over 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Unfortunately, about 59% of them do not have health insurance. With 25% of legal immigrants uninsured, that creates a large population that cannot seek or receive proper medical treatment (Wolf, 2008). Fixing this

This documentary tries to bust myths about immigrations like: undocumented immigrant workers do not pay taxes, most immigrants are in the United States illegally and that immigrants take away jobs from Americans. It showed that these workers pay sale taxes, consumption taxes and property taxes at the state and federal levels. 20 million of the 31 million immigrants in the United States are legal and about 45% of them got into the county legally. American born workers dropped my 1.8 million between 2000 and 2005 crating a vacuum that was filled by these workers (Lloyd, 34).

The second concern is undocumented immigrants and the financial burden it has placed on taxpayers. According to Elizabeth Lee Vliet, MD, “estimates are that 20-40% of uncompensated (“free”) medical services are provided to people in the US illegally” (Vliet, 2010). These figures are only an approximation with a possibility of being much greater. Dr. Vliet addresses compelling evidence that points out the massive undocumented immigrants in the state of Arizona with “more than half of Arizona’s $4 billion budget deficit was the result of paying for three areas of illegal immigrants, education, healthcare, and incarceration” (Vliet, 2010). Given these

Nevertheless, it is not only imperative to outline that between 2009 and 2014 the number of illegal immigrants decreased in Kansas, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois, South Carolina, California as well as Nevada, but also vital to note that these reductions are alleged to the reduced number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants. As opposed to the small number (41 percent) of immigrants who had lived in America for more than ten years in the US by 2005, the figure had risen significantly to a wobbling 66 percent by 2014. Nevertheless, those who have lived in the country illegally for less than five years are declining in number steadily, having been estimated at barely 14 percent in 2014 (Krogstad and Passel 17). While the illegal immigrants could be considered as both credible and dependable because of the benefits they bring to the US, on the contrary, it is critical to comprehend the unintended consequences that translate into tangible problems like increased competition for the limited unskilled job opportunities, increased pressure on the economy by using free social services including healthcare, social security, and education as well as the growing crime rate perpetuated by unauthorized citizens in the

"To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right­ is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last ­but eat you he will.”—Ronald Reagan. Illegal immigration continues to disrespect this nation’s immigration laws completely, illegal aliens are criminals, nonetheless. There must soon be a solution to this problem because the U.S. born babies of these aliens are weighing down taxpayers with overbearing free benefits. Taxpayers toil to pay the billion dollar taxes of anchor baby benefits while illegal aliens generally do not pay any form of tax—making taxpayers alone compensate for the funds they do not deserve to pay. Ultimately, babies born to illegal immigrants create a financial burden for U.S. taxpayers because of rising costs in health care, housing assistance and welfare, and public education.

Undocumented immigrants put back nearly a majority of their income into local businesses, these immigrants also contribute nearly $15 billion every year into the Social Security fund(Davidson). However, they only use about $1 billion every year through government benefits (Davidson). These immigrants are responsible for many economic benefits, and allowing a path to citizenship for them would result in an influx in tax payments, thereby helping the government and paying for the benefits they would theoretically use (Davidson). Attempts to deport these immigrants would have great costs to the government, this can be illustrated through current budget proposals which designate billions of dollars in attempts to prevent future immigration. Therefore, providing these undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship would relieve the government of costs to deport them, and would result in an influx of tax dollars for the government to help unskilled natural-born workers that are affected by the undocumented

A memorandum authored by Edwards (2010) for the Center for Immigration Studies, contends that of the estimated 6.7 million uninsured undocumented immigrants 3.1 million would be eligible for Medicaid. Edwards (2010) proclaims this entitlement is due to the low incomes earned, which is unlikely to waver based on low educational attainment. While Edwards (2010) acknowledges that undocumented immigrants are generally younger and have better health than the overall Medicaid population, the author posits that, “covering 3.1 million amnestied immigrants would conservatively cost taxpayers $48.6 billion dollars…between 2014-2019” (Edwards, 2010, p. 1). This number does not include those undocumented immigrants, which if granted access to the benefits of the ACA, who would receive subsidies based on income. Thus the author argues the conservative nature of the estimates, and concerns over the difficulties presented in estimating actual costs of insuring the undocumented population (Edwards,

In “Illegal Immigrants Do Not Harm America’s Economy,” Brian Grow and his colleagues, reporters for Business Week, argue that rather than damaging it, illegal immigrants actually help the economy by paying taxes and advancing general economic growth. The writers are responding to claims that illegal immigrants receive unwarranted negative attention for supposed drains on public services. They also address the fact that, despite possible legal ramifications, companies hire undocumented workers in higher numbers than ever before while the government seems to turn a blind eye. They speak of depressed wages, increased spending, and ambivalent government policies. Grow and the other writers try to

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, a third of all Americans state that the biggest worry about illegal immigrants is that they “used more public services than they pay for in taxes.” Anti-immigrant proponents, such a Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Dobbs and the “patriot” Mark Levin have done an excellent job confusing the public; making them believe that illegal immigration has a negative economic impact. When in fact the truth is the exact opposite, and all of them know it; yet they continue to obfuscate the truth and misdirect the public. Consider this: a surprising two-thirds of illegal immigrants pay Social Security, Medicare, and personal income taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration, undocumented immigrants pay many different types of taxes, including sales, property, social security, and individual income taxes. Even the most ignorant anti-immigrant radio or TV personality knows that the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified illegal immigrants from nearly all means-tested government programs including housing, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization assistance, and even food stamps. The only services that illegal immigrants can still get are K-12 education and emergency medical

Immigrants have been coming to America since the start of this country. However, there is a fine line between an illegal and legal immigrant. Although most immigrants come here in search of a better life for themselves, they do not think about the consequences the rest of the country must fac. Since they are not citizens, they do not receive some of the benefits that an American citizen has, including health care and public schooling. Although they do not have these benefits, they continue receive treatments at hospitals and attend schools, which Americans cannot afford. Illegal immigrants affect the United States’ economy, health care system, and education system in a negative way.