This week, April 22-26, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to count self-identified illegal aliens in the 2020 census. Democrats and liberals are worried that adding the “citizenship question” could result in an undercount and the loss of political power and billions of dollars in federal funds. However, American taxpayers deserve to know how many illegal aliens reside in their communities because of the public costs.
Many Americans have complained for years about the growing cost to taxpayers, especially regarding the impact of the current surge of Central American families and unaccompanied minors. In 2017, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the pro-legal immigration think tank, found illegal aliens are a net consumer of taxpayer benefits worth more than $100 billion a year, not including the cost of enforcing the border.
Dan Stein, director of FAIR, said, "We're talking about billions of dollars in taxpayer benefits over the next few years. The payout for the taxpayer is enormous, and income to the Treasury is minuscule."
While federal benefits are NOT supposed to be available to illegal aliens, they do receive them. For example, more than 25,000 undocumented workers receive subsidized federal housing, and illegal alien children receive free education, free English lessons, and free school breakfast and lunch.
Furthermore, Illegal aliens do not qualify for Obamacare, but under federal law, hospitals and clinics are required to provide urgent medical care without regard to immigration status. Pregnant women are entitled to prenatal and postpartum care under the federal “Women, Infants and Children” program, and baby delivery costs are paid for by Medicaid. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the federal-state immigrant insurance program cost $2 billion a year in emergency treatment, not including the $1.24 billion in infant delivery expenses.
Also, illegal aliens are not entitled to food stamps, but families with U.S.-born children are eligible and receive them. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 31% of such families use the SNAP program and more than 50% of Central American families in the U.S. use at least one welfare program.
Free public benefits including welfare, education and other social services are magnets and rewards for illegal aliens. When bad behavior, such as illegal immigration, is rewarded, it encourages more bad behavior.
To prevent illegal immigration and secure the border, we must build the wall and stop rewarding illegal aliens with public benefits. What is the point of being a legal and lawful citizen if illegal aliens receive the same rights, privileges, and benefits?
Build the wall, stop excusing and rewarding illegal aliens.