Thursday, March 02, 2006

The Real Cost of Illegal Aliens

From The News Briefs in The Agape Press:

...The state auditor of Mississippi says illegal immigration is costing taxpayers in his state about $25 million a year for healthcare, education, and prison expenses. He believes the state cannot continue to absorb those kinds of costs. State Auditor Phil Bryant conducted his study because of concerns about the increased influx of illegal alien workers being used to rebuild the Katrina-devastated Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even though some estimates have the illegal population in the state as high as 100,000, Bryant prefers a conservative estimate of 49,000, many of whom he says are going to take advantage of government services like education and healthcare. "Unfortunately," he adds, "they're [also] going to come into contact with the public safety officials. And also, the remittance [is a factor] -- that's money that is earned here in Mississippi that is sent out of state to other countries." Bryant contends the actual expenses of illegal aliens is more than $69 million a year. "If you take that $69 million cost of illegal immigrations and subtract the almost $44 million that they contribute to the tax base, you come up with the rough estimate of $25 million dollars that is a real cost to [Mississippi] taxpayers each and every year," the state official explains. Bryant is recommending that state agencies collect accurate information on the number of illegal immigrants in order to apply for more federal dollars for social services. [Chad Groening]


I guess the moral to the story is "If you're going to smack yourself in the face with a frying pan you may as well not say that you just kissed a teddy bear". Call it for what it is.

What we might all enjoy is establishing an "Illegal Alien Sales Tax" to be applied to your regular state and local sales tax to offset the rising cost of non-paying illegals dragging down the system. This way, every time you make a purchase, at least you can be aware that the someone who foots the bill is ??? ... you guessed it... it's YOU!

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