Did you see this study that illegal immigration costs Illinois more than $3.5 billion a year?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070627/pl_usnw/illegal_immigration_costs_illinoisans3_5_billion_a_year_finds_new_study_by_fair

I know California has much higher costs, but this is in the mid west. What do you think?

rosa, I don't know the numbers for Illinois, but in California it costs $10,000 per child PER YEAR for an education k-12 . The $5,000 fine is nothing.

MB about half pay taxes per studies and of those a lot get refunds. The income level insures they can't pay in taxes what they take out of the system in services, or anything close to it.

gameover, Alan Greenspan thinks over-immigration is good for the economy because it is an 'anti-inflationary factor' which means because it drives wages down. That isn't a good thing for those who live and work here, as opposed to those who own the big businesses.

shazjmd - does that include administrative overhead or just what is paid out to schools? I'd be interested in a link. I don't want to use facts that are wrong, but these don't sound far off of other states.

shazmd - here is the actual study, and it calculates from a 'per pupil expenditure' basis http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/Illinois_Cost_Study.pdf?docID=1521 and discusses federal funds as well.

Gameover, your article comes nowhere near that number and I have never heard of the guy who wrote it. Since he calls people against illegal immigration 'hatemongers' he loses some credibility with me. However, I am looking into the statement about the budget.

Answer 1

I live in Illinois and while I dont know the exact numbers of the cost of illegals I can tell you that a recent report in our city shows the increase of illegals in our local schools( up to 5.2 from 1.2%). Our school district holds a 6 week summer session for the children of migrant workers. These are people who dont live here and dont pay into the system. Then they tell us we cant afford some programs nor can we afford to improve the existing buildings or build new schools. Our children dont get the education we are paying for and the buildings dont get repaired or replaced. Our children are paying the price of education for illegals.

Answer 2

I lived in Chicago not too long ago and from what I gather the Chicago school systems have never ever been very good. They have always been underfunded and understaffed in the areas of Chicago where property taxes aren't as high. Have illegal immigrants made the problem worse? Possibly. But can they take the blame for the failing schools in Chicago? Hardly.

Either way this seems like a great reason to legalize the illegals. Make them pay taxes. Turn that cost into a profit.

Oh, and I don't necessarily agree with information distributed by FAIR either.

Answer 3

I find The language of game over quite bias by its frequent statement about racism. I have a hard time trusting economic data when it spends equal time on social matters. THe article from oregon states illegal immigrants pay 45,000 in taxes. I would be mad, since If the average illegal pays that much in taxes, they would make about twice as much as me, and I have a college degree and licensing.

THe thing I don't understand is that people actually think that illegal immigrants pay enough to self support themselves when the poor in AMerica doesn't. the article from Fair only deal with three parts of the cost of illegal immigrants. I doubt the people on the pro-amnesty side understand it's still a small fraction of the cost of them being here. Aditional people means additional cost in city services. I'm shock illegal immigrants are coming in such significant numbers in Illinois. 10% seems high for me.

Answer 4

Multiply that by 50 states..considering the costs to the border states are much higher...it should be about average.
Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas claims it would cost $200 billion to deport. Arkansas is near-border state and hard hit by illegal aliens. I've seen different amounts for here, but none less than $5billion. So 50 x 3.5 = $175 billion. One year and a couple of months to pay for deportation with savings from not paying for their upkeep, benefits, legal aid, etc.
Sounds like a bargain to me..deport.

Answer 5

As soon as the article starts giving specific numbers, it fails based on inaccuracy. The report claims 10% of Illinois school children are illegal (or born to illegal parents) and that they use 3.1 billion in education funds. Since the total budget for the Illinois State Board of Education for FY07 is 8.749 billion, 10% of that is not 3.1 billion. So, I stopped reading further. "FAIR" is not an objective source of information.

Answer 6

DAR DAR DAR DAR ur source is FAIR !!!!???

Well according to Alan Greenspan Illinois is one of the states which gains more than any other from the undocumented but here is the question .: are u or ur Friends willing to accept what the people who knows accepts as a fact ???

here some more info and please note the 90 billions the talk about in there :

study by the University of Illinois found that even as undocumented workers paid federal and state income taxes (one study pegs the amount of taxes paid at $90 billion per year), they did not claim the tax refunds for which they were eligible. These unclaimed refunds amount to the donation of billions of dollars to the public coffers....

EDIT Alan is not the only one who believes they are positive and contribute to the economy and actually shows numbers way bigger to what u just showed ....

...... .... ....... ........ .............. ...... ....... ...

there is not worst blind that the one who just doesn't want to see .

thanks for the laugh anyways Illinois is the state to talk about when it comes to the undocumented since it has the larger percentage ...

Answer 7

Once they all pay $5000 dollars in charges I think it will be a deal!

Considering the cost of the war is much higher then that... this is a bargain! They also pay taxes so you can't say they are totally draining the economy. What are you going to do, go house to house and find out how many work and pay taxes. If they do, then you can't add them into the quota!

Answer 8

I live in Chicago (4th generation resident) though I think I will move out of state as this is the most corrupt city, in the most corrupt county located in the most corrupt state in the Union (and yes I am aware of New Jersey, Louisianna and California).

I was aware of this amount. You can add billions for providing health care, food stamps, section 8 housing and other welfare benefits handed out to illegal aliens and their offspring in this sanctuary city / county / state.

I think it is time to leave for Americans to leave Illinois to the illegals and let it die like Detroit and have a per capita income of a couple thousand dollars matching Mexico's PCI.

Answer 9

Illegals pay taxes,

They should factor the taxes the immigrants put in the system.

Answer 10

Such a deal, the illegals get the gold mine and we the tax payers get the shaft and the bill