[stone_mound_camaro]

Originally Posted by AlmostStock

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/apr2006/pi20060407_072803.htm





What are the costs of undocumented immigration in the U.S.?
There are real costs for some states and municipalities, especially for health care and education. But Standard & Poor's believes that a serious misallocation of these costs among various levels of government is at least as much of a problem as their overall magnitude.

Each year, for example, the U.S. Social Security Administration maintains roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of Social Security contributions in an "earnings suspense file" -- an account for W-2 tax forms that cannot be matched to the correct Social Security number. The vast majority of these numbers are attributable to undocumented workers who will never claim their benefits.

If those funds could be earmarked for local support, they would make a sizable dent in education costs. Local school districts are estimated to educate 1.8 million undocumented children. At an average annual cost of $7,500 (averages vary by jurisdiction) per student, the cost of providing education to these children is about $11.2 billion. That means roughly half of the education costs for undocumented immigrant children could be met if these Social Security funds could be redirected.

While this specific reallocation of funds may never occur, the principle, in our opinion, remains valid: Taxes from the spending of undocumented workers can help offset the costs those workers generate. Past studies have shown that even in a state like California, which has the highest number of undocumented immigrants, those immigrants generate approximately one-third to one-half of their estimated costs to the state through sales taxes and other assorted fees. In short, these costs are real, but they could also be more manageable. -S&P article


Adding in the savings in wages which leads to lower prices for everyone, along with a stronger economy, (both of which would be hard to accurately calculate) probably makes illegals close to a wash, or even beneficial to us financially. Did you notice how in his speech on Monday, even our president mentioned the economy as partial rationale for his strategy of dealing with the issue? Hmmmm... there must be some truth behind the benefits being a lot higher than many people want to believe.


Flame away with facts, not emotions.

I'm not jus talking about the economic impact when I talk about they cost more than they contribute....