- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Illegal
immigrants to the United States cost the federal government over $10 billion
a year, but that figure would increase almost threefold if they were granted
legal status, according to a study released on Wednesday.
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- The study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington
think-tank which advocates slowing legal immigration and clamping down
on illegal migration, measured the amount of revenue illegal immigrants
provide through taxes against the government services they and their families
consume.
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- There are an estimated 10 million illegal aliens in the
United States.
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- "Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more
than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid
only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion,
or $2,700 per illegal household," Steve Camarota, author of the report.
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- These costs, derived from Census Bureau figures, include
Medicaid, which provides medical insurance for the poor, other emergency
medical treatment, food assistance programs and the federal prison system,
where roughly 17 percent of inmates are illegal immigrants.
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- They did not include costs to local and state governments
which would push the deficit much higher, Camarota said.
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- Earlier this year, President Bush proposed a guest worker
program that would allow some of the nation's illegal aliens to acquire
legal guest worker status. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
has proposed granting an amnesty for most illegal immigrants who have been
in the United States for at least five years.
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- GREATER COSTS
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- But the report said legalizing illegal aliens would vastly
increase their costs. More would pay taxes but because the majority are
poor and hold low-paying jobs, this would be vastly outweighed by the increased
government welfare services they would consume.
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- Camarota said the only effective way to lighten the fiscal
burden was to enforce immigration laws by stepping up border patrols and
reducing the number of illegal aliens in the country. At the moment, laws
making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants are almost totally ignored.
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- Many employers would likely fight such steps because
they rely on illegal migrants as a source of low paid labor.
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- Immigration advocates criticized the report for ignoring
the human side of the equation and failing to suggest any constructive
solutions.
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- "Our legal immigration system is broken. Family
members have to wait years to gain legal entry to this country to be reunited.
It can take 10 years to get a legal visa for a spouse," said Michele
Waslin, a senior analyst for the National Council of La Raza, a major Hispanic
organization.
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- "We need comprehensive legal immigration, which
includes legalizing undocumented immigrants who can prove they are law
abiding and pay their taxes," Waslin said.
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- Georgetown University immigration expert Lindsay Lowell
said U.S. immigration law had helped create an underprivileged underclass
of low income workers that helped employers but imposed substantial costs
on the rest of society.
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