Peter Fern
COM/150
02-12-2012
Shelli Meade
Illegal Immigration, the Drain on the U.S. Economy
The amount of money that comes out of your pocket for schooling, incarceration, jobs lost, and maintaining the medical system in the United States because of illegal immigrants may be more than people know. During the past few decades, the influx of illegal immigrants has risen dramatically. Illegal immigrants put a huge strain on our school systems, commit a disproportionate amount of crimes in this country and have taken many jobs that American citizens unemployed could do. The economic drain on the school systems is growing rapidly. There are currently over five million children of illegal’s in our public school systems (Hampton, 2010). The cost to the taxpayer to have these illegals in the school system is over 153 billion dollars since 1996, or about 12 billion per year, it is now estimated that the cost per year is in the range of 29 and 35 billion dollars. The cost has risen significantly since 1996 (Hampton, 2010). The number of anchor babies, these are children born in the United States to illegal’s and automatically become American citizens, since 2002 is estimated at almost 5 million (Hampton, 2010). Crime is a major concern whenever there are illegal immigrants entering the country. It is estimated by many news organizations that violent crimes in the United States, up to 80 percent of them, are committed by illegal’s who have come to this country and joined Latino gangs (Jones, 2011). The U.S. Department of Justice reported that as of 2009 the notorious 18th Street gang, which operates in more than 20 states and is responsible for the distribution of many drugs, has a 30 to 50 thousand person membership, with 80 percent being illegal aliens (Jones, 2011). There are an estimated 470 thousand illegal’s incarcerated
References: Hampton, S. (2010). Immigration counters. Retrieved from http://immigrationcounters.com/index.html Jones, A. (2012). The economic collapse. Retrieved from http://www.infowars.com/18-facts-prove-illegal-immigration-is-absolute-nightmare-for- u-s-economy Wagner, P. (2007). The dark side of illegal immigration. Retrieved from http://usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration