Could "Amnesty" Bankrupt US Economy?

By Xelan Bonn

WASHINGTON, D.C. - September 27, 2007

Forget every aspect you have ever debated about illegal immigration  and amnesty schemes - instead, look at the money!

Anyone armed with a few facts and $3 calculator can find an mind-shocking reality and see the fiscal irresponsibly or treachery of Congress.

Examine the Heritage Foundation’s report projecting $2.6 trillion in entitlement costs for giving amnesty to 10 million illegal aliens, then assume there are actually 20 million (as projected by many researchers) for an adjusted impact of $5.2 trillion.

Next, realize that current laws will allow amnestied aliens to bring their impoverished family members to the US. The Heritage Foundation has projected an influx of 80 million; using their original per-person estimate, add another $20.8 trillion for a total cost impact minimum of $26 trillion over the next 30 years (about .87 trillion annually, not including interest payments).

However, those would not be all the cost impacts we suffer.

We need to calculate the cost for impacts that are in addition to the Heritage study, like law enforcement impacts, prison housing, education, interim emergency healthcare, education, etc.. Woops! The Government Accounting Office has not ran those numbers - why? Simply because our Congress refuses to investigate these costs. Why - because they are so astronomical nobody wants to consider them - never mind our country will be bankrupted by their complete incompetence! 

Absent GAO investigative reports, we can still get a rough idea of these other cost forced on us by illegal aliens should they be amnestied.

Consider San Diego county city manager’s office that just reported that illegal immigration impacts exceed $101 million annually (for law enforcement, health, and human services, saving education and emergency medical care costs). With an estimated 209,930 illegal aliens in SD County (about 6.8% of all residence) the study claims the average cost per illegal alien is impacting taxpayers about $527 per year. (We should mention that the study applied extremely conservative criteria because it had no choice - both city, state, and federal agencies fail to distinguish who is and is not in the US legally, hence actual cost impacts are assumed much higher.) Given a population of 10 million illegal aliens, our total for this category is $5.27 billion annually, or $10.54 billion if we assume 20 million illegal aliens. Extend that amount to cover the cost of impoverished relatives (20 million amnestied plus 80 million family members to be subsequently allowed to come) for a total of $52.7 billion annually. Lastly, extend those cost over 30 years to match the Heritage base study and arrive at a new adjusted amnesty total cost of $27.58 trillion ($26.0 + $1.58) (without education and emergency healthcare being considered yet).

In order to arrive at education costs, we first need to look at total costs for K-12 spending, which the federal government placed at about $415 billion in 2001. Using data from the Census Bureau we can discover that of the 51.35 million students who were enrolled, 2.29 million were foreign-born enrollments, and another 10.59 were children of foreign born parents enrollments. Therefore, immigrant children (both legal and illegal count for nearly 1/4th the total education budget of $104.09 billion annually (or about $8,081 per child). 

Although some have estimated that as much as 15% of the entire student body is here illegally, we'll estimate only 35% of the foreign born and foreign parent pool to arrive at 4.51 million illegal alien students (about 9% of total student population). This is costing US taxpayers $36.44 billion annually. Amnesty would not decrease this amount. We must also extend this amount by 30 years for an extended total of $1.09 trillion.  Of course, what about the 80 million alien family members that get to come in after the amnesty - they will also be entitled to be students? Therefore, let's assume each 20 million has an equal number of students (4.51 million) to arrive at a new total of $5.45 trillion (over 30 years). Our new adjusted 30-year total is now $33.03 trillion (without emergency services being added in yet).

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In 2001, Americans shelled out nearly $21 billion for uncompensated health care services to illegal aliens. Amnesty is not expected to decrease but rather increase this amount over time, as illegal aliens once amnestied are not going to miraculously have a larger paycheck. Extend this amount over 30 years and the cost totals $630 billion. Adjust for the added 80 million family members that come and we are looking at $3.15 trillion over the next 30 years.

Our new adjusted grand total for amnesty over a 30 year period is now $36.18 trillion! Assume all projections are only 50% correct. Do we really want to amnesty 12-20 million illegal aliens and then foot the bill?

What if the number of illegal aliens is really much higher, as well as our cost impacts? And what about interest payments on this money, which could effectively double or even triple the amount?

Let’s see how this effects the national debt and economy.

Our national debt will tick upwards an average of over $1 trillion per year, all things remaining the same (assuming there are no new healthcare programs or other costly entitlement programs enacted for Americans to impact the system). In just one decade, we will have doubled our entire national debt!  Where will that money come from?

China holds about $1.3 trillion in US currency and debt and has threatened to dump it and collapse the dollar if we quit buying their products. Our Mid-East wars are being paid for on borrowed funds, costing us roughly the amount that China holds. Where will the next $10 trillion over 10 years come from and how much more power will we place in the hands of foreign countries who extend us credit. Do we really intended to give our country or sovereign control away to foreigners, whether they are on our soil illegally or via international monetary markets or trade markets or via political demands and threats by half-enemy nations that force us to obey!

1. Seriously, invest the cost of a movie ticket ($12) and help support the PUA so we can continue bringing you the tools and information you need to keep your government honest.
2. Write Congress: One letter sent to your House of Representative member, and two copies sent to your state's two Senators.
3. Support SAA. Sign the SAA Petition. E-mail SAA to all your friends and relatives and ask them to get involved and to help us permanently end illegal immigration and open borders and to stop Congress giving away trillion dollar IOUs to foreigners.
4. Respect your children and their future by getting involved on their behalf--they will be the ones who will pay dearly for your inaction so get involved with time, donations, volunteer efforts, passing the word (fax & e-mail letters) and word-of-mouth efforts, and more.

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