our armed forces secure Afghanistan and Iraq, our own borders stand unguarded 24 hours a
day. Al-Qaeda insurgents plan their next attacks somewhere inside our country. They
advocate a violent overthrow of America.
benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes. This generated an average annual
fiscal deficit (benefits received minus taxes paid) of around $14,387 per household. This cost
had to be borne by U.S. taxpayers. Amnesty would provide unlawful households with access
to over 80 means-tested welfare programs, Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare. The
fiscal deficit for each household would soar.
households generate a “fiscal deficit” that must be financed by taxes from other households or by
government borrowing. For example, in 2010, in the U.S. population as a whole, households headed
by persons without a high school degree, on average, received $46,582 in government benefits while
paying only $11,469 in taxes. This generated an average fiscal deficit (benefits received minus taxes
paid) of $35,113.
typical unlawful immigrant has only a 10th-grade education. Half of unlawful immigrant households
are headed by an individual with less than a high school degree, and another 25 percent of household
heads have only a high school degree.
The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer
Unlawful immigration and amnesty for current unlawful immigrants can pose large fiscal costs for U.S. taxpayers. Government provides four types of benefits and services that are relevant to this issue:
- Direct benefits. These include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.
- Means-tested welfare benefits. There are over 80 of these programs which, at a cost of nearly $900 billion per year, provide cash, food, housing, medical, and other services to roughly 100 million low-income Americans. Major programs include Medicaid, food stamps, the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
- Public education. At a cost of $12,300 per pupil per year, these services are largely free or heavily subsidized for low-income parents.
- Population-based services. Police, fire, highways, parks, and similar services, as the National Academy of Sciences determined in its study of the fiscal costs of immigration, generally have to expand as new immigrants enter a community; someone has to bear the cost of that expansion.