On May 25, 6:56 pm, Graphic Queen wrote:
Immigration costs far outweigh labors
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 25, 2007

Low-skilled legal immigrants and illegal aliens in the U.S. are
receiving much more in federal social welfare benefits than they pay
in taxes at a net cost of $89 billion a year to American taxpayers,
according to a Heritage Foundation study.
A cost-benefit analysis by the conservative think tank of the
immigration reform bill being debated in the Senate -- which it said
would grant what many consider amnesty to illegal aliens and increase
the flow of low-skilled workers into the U.S. -- warned that if the
legislation becomes law, it would result in "the largest expansion of
the welfare state in 30 years."
"Such proposals would increase poverty in the U.S. in the short
and long term and dramatically increase the burden on U.S. taxpayers,"
said Robert E. Rector, senior research fellow for welfare at Heritage
and the co-author of the study with Christine Kim.
Mr. Rector's findings and conclusions were sharply disputed by
another conservative think tank, the Cato Institute, which said that
some of his cost estimates were "grossly exaggerated" and that
low-skilled workers, especially Hispanics with a strong work ethic,
contributed to the U.S. economy's overall growth and prosperity.
Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy
Studies, acknowledged that lower-skilled workers on average "consume
more in government services than they pay in taxes." But he pointed to
several studies that showed their work in many low-skill industries,
from agriculture to construction, also helped expand state economies.
"The right policy response to the fiscal concerns about
immigration is not to artificially suppress labor migration but to
control and reallocate government spending," Mr. Griswold said in a
recent paper.
Mr. Rector amassed a significant amount of data drawn from the
U.S. census surveys that he said showed how a wave of poorly educated,
low-income immigrants and illegals were imposing increasing costs on
the country through 60 means-tested aid programs, from welfare to food
stamps for immigrant families with children born in this country.
"Each year, roughly 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants enter
and take up residence in the U.S. This immigrant flow is
disproportionately poorly educated because illegal immigration
primarily attracts low-skill workers and the legal immigration system
favors kinship ties over skill levels," he said.
According to Heritage, the nation has 4.5 million low-skilled
immigrant households containing 15.9 million people, or about 5
percent of the population. About 60 percent of these households were
headed by legal immigrants and 40 percent by illegals, the study said.
Contrary to a belief among many Americans that low-skilled, low-paid
immigrants do not pay any taxes, Mr. Rector said, "These families are
rarely idle; they consistently work and pay taxes."
But the taxes they pay seldom cover the costs of the substantial
benefits they receive, he said.
In fiscal 2004, "the average low-skill immigrant household
received $30,160 in direct benefits, means-test benefits, education
and population-based services from all levels of government," he said.
In return, however, these households on average paid only $10,573 in
taxes that year.
Mr. Rector said the solution is to "reduce the costs of low-skill
immigration to the taxpayers" by enforcing laws against employing
illegal aliens, making a guest-worker program "truly temporary and not
a gateway to welfare entitlements," ending birthright citizenship for
children of illegal aliens and ruling out any amnesty in the
immigration reform bill.
Several government and free-market think tank studies assembled by
Mr. Griswold at the Cato Institute paint a different picture of the
impact of low-skilled immigrants in the U.S. economy.
"Several state-level studies have found that the increased
economic activity created by lower-skilled, mostly Hispanic immigrants
far exceeds the costs to state and local governments," Mr. Griswold
wrote.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...4520-5637r.htm

The cheap labor lobby and the usual collection of poliltical skunks
want to shove
this bill down America's throat.

ted

http://www.vdare.com/ V-Darre