2008 Woodie Awards
Illegal immigration burdens economy
Cait Jacob, The Post
Issue date: 2/1/06 Section: Opinion
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
This, the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, offers immigrants an open invitation for a chance at a better life in the United States - a country founded by immigrants. And we should never close our shores to them.
According to the Census Bureau, about 11.5 percent of people living in the United States are foreign-born, and accounted for in that percentage are eight to nine million illegal immigrants. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, there were an estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants just in Ohio in the year 2000.
Now though there is nothing wrong with immigration, there are many things wrong with illegal immigration, and just as many problems with how the government is dealing with it.
According to a Jan. 10 Associated Press article, "Mexico says illegal immigrants should not be treated like criminals," Mexicans living in the United States sent home more than $16 billion in remittances in 2004. Clearly, even illegal immigrants that have come to the United States to work are more concerned with bolstering the quality of life in Mexico rather than permanently residing within our borders. Mexican President Vicente Fox has called the United States' recent attempts to better secure its borders "shameful." The real shameful thing is that Fox seems more concerned with chastising the U.S. than improving his country's economy, which cannot effectively support its citizens.
It is understandable that some Mexican citizens cross the border to work and accumulate a larger amount of wealth than possible in Mexico, but doing so illegally puts an unfair monetary burden on citizens of the United States -- who either themselves or whose parents immigrated legally.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigrants put a tremendous strain on the federal budget. It is estimated that each year the government pays about $2.5 billion in Medicaid costs, $2.2 billion for medical treatment of uninsured illegal aliens, $1.9 billion in food assistance, $1.4 billion in federal aid to schools, $1.6 billion extra to the federal prison and court systems -- not to mention other costs.
This, the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, offers immigrants an open invitation for a chance at a better life in the United States - a country founded by immigrants. And we should never close our shores to them.
According to the Census Bureau, about 11.5 percent of people living in the United States are foreign-born, and accounted for in that percentage are eight to nine million illegal immigrants. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, there were an estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants just in Ohio in the year 2000.
Now though there is nothing wrong with immigration, there are many things wrong with illegal immigration, and just as many problems with how the government is dealing with it.
According to a Jan. 10 Associated Press article, "Mexico says illegal immigrants should not be treated like criminals," Mexicans living in the United States sent home more than $16 billion in remittances in 2004. Clearly, even illegal immigrants that have come to the United States to work are more concerned with bolstering the quality of life in Mexico rather than permanently residing within our borders. Mexican President Vicente Fox has called the United States' recent attempts to better secure its borders "shameful." The real shameful thing is that Fox seems more concerned with chastising the U.S. than improving his country's economy, which cannot effectively support its citizens.
It is understandable that some Mexican citizens cross the border to work and accumulate a larger amount of wealth than possible in Mexico, but doing so illegally puts an unfair monetary burden on citizens of the United States -- who either themselves or whose parents immigrated legally.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigrants put a tremendous strain on the federal budget. It is estimated that each year the government pays about $2.5 billion in Medicaid costs, $2.2 billion for medical treatment of uninsured illegal aliens, $1.9 billion in food assistance, $1.4 billion in federal aid to schools, $1.6 billion extra to the federal prison and court systems -- not to mention other costs.