The Cost of Illegal Immigrants in Texas - Research Paper Example

Cost of Illegal Immigrants in Texas “Texas taxpayers spent at least $250 million last year in state prison and health care costs for illegal immigrants, but figuring out the precise cost will be difficult, state officials testified on Wednesday… Rick Allgeyer, director of research for the Health and Human Services Commission, told the committee that health care to illegal immigrants last year cost the state nearly $100 million, mostly for emergency hospital care… The figure includes the cost of 63,000 births – including 11,000 at Parkland Memorial Hospital, as The Dallas Morning News reported last week” (Rahman, 2010). This quote is an extract from the Dallas Morning News, which examined the financial effects of the illegal immigrants in Texas. This calculation was done on behalf of the millions of taxpayers who were paying heavily in tax dollars for the presence of illegal immigrants residing in the state. The reason why this problem is especially prominent in Texas as opposed to the other forty-nine states of America is that this state is situated at the very south of the country. Due to its location, it is very near to Mexico, and thus Mexicans illegally emigrating from their own land often settle down or take refuge in this state. Thus, there are thousands of such unregistered immigrants residing in the state of Texas, the costs of which are paid for by the taxpayers and legal inhabitants of Texas, as well as the government responsible. The reason why the presence of these illegal immigrants proves to be such a financial challenge for the legal citizens of this state is that they consume the public goods, which the government provides to the residents of this country. The US, being a developed country, provides several such goods to its citizens, such as health, education, and defense. These are all public goods, which it provides to every citizen of the country. These costs are especially prominent concerning health care costs, which these illegal immigrants incur. As research shows, “The Texas Hospital Association has estimated the annual cost of uncompensated care to illegal immigrants at nearly $400 million a year” (A Lone Star Report, 2006). In addition, as mentioned in the news extract above, these costs included the cost of 66,000 births in one year, which makes up a large proportion of these costs. These services however are not completely free of cost for these citizens. The government finances them using the tax dollars that these citizens themselves pay out of their own incomes, in the form of both direct and indirect taxes. However, only the legal citizens of the country pay direct taxes on their income, as they are the only ones of whom the government has a record. Thus, this allows for tax evasion by all those illegal citizens who reside in the county without the permission or knowledge of the government. They do not pay direct taxes on their incomes, and therefore avoid having to pay the government for all the above-mentioned public good and services that it provides to them. In other words, they are able to avail these services free even when they are not the ones paying for them. The legal citizens who are taxpayers, bear the whole cost of such goods and services, even when there are thousands of other illegal consumers present. Thus, this is a heavy financial burden for the taxpayers to bear, since they pay not just for themselves, thus severely testing the patience of these law-abiding citizens. Moreover, due to the geographical location of the state of Texas, it is especially vulnerable to this problem. Another cost that these citizens pay because of the presence of these illegal immigrants is the disruption in law and order, which they cause. Their presence is often accompanied by several offences, which include robberies and drug trafficking. This is a large disadvantage for those citizens who abide by the law and hope for peaceful and safe environment in which to live and raise their families. As mentioned above, the state of Texas spent over $250 million in state prison and healthcare costs for illegal citizens, a cost, which was again a financial burden on the legal, taxpaying citizens of the same area (Rahman, 2010). However, apart from the financial costs, there is still a large negative externality attached to this problem. These illegal immigrants are often not fully educated and thus not fully equipped to acquire highly paid jobs, which would cover their expenses as well as their wants. Thus, a large proportion of these people turn to illegal activities as an alternate source of income. This includes smuggling, drug trafficking, robberies and running businesses of fabricating important documents (Dillin, 2006). The prevalence of all these activities in any residential area is large social cost for the other inhabitants of the neighborhood to bear. It makes the area unsafe, and declines the market value for the houses in such places. This is not to say that the people who engage in such businesses consist only of such illegal immigrants. In fact, a large proportion of such criminals belong to legal citizens who simply belong to a lower socio-economic level of society. It is still, however a significant fact to note, that illegal immigrants with no other economic backing are especially prone to committing such offenses. Another major stakeholder in this matter is the government of Texas. These law and order problems that these illegal immigrants cause, as well as the large expenses they incur in their use of health and other costs, are a major burden for the government. Being responsible for the largest state in the US, it already has several responsibilities and concerns to address. These additional problems are inconvenient for the government, as it has to divert resources of time and money, from other important issues to this problem (Morrow, 2009). In addition, due to its inadequate control of the immigration over the US-Texas border, it incurs large expenses in trying to control the damage that these illegal immigrants cause. Thus, given the magnitudes of such large costs, both financial and social, the government should actively take measures against this illegal activity continuing. As research shows, these costs due to illegal immigrants residing in Texas are borne by both the citizens of the state as well as the government responsible for the state. These parties pay in time, money, and social costs and are overall at a loss in this matter. This is because the additional convenience they gain from not tackling the matter of illegal immigration from the root is easily outweighed by the numerous costs they pay. Thus, it is the responsibility of the taxpaying individuals as well as the government to take action against this high occurrence of illegal immigration. The action that the government could take against this problem would be to make the security at the borders with Mexico stricter, with higher penalties for disobeying as well as stricter treatment of repeat offenders. Apart from this, they could also attempt to create awareness about the costs of illegal immigration to the citizens of Texas, so that they would also be more motivated and well informed enough to perform their roles in curbing this illegal immigration. They would also endeavor to send informational messages to the people in Mexico who are wishing to migrate to the US, so that they have enough knowledge about the proper channels of migrating, and would not choose the more convenient but more problematic methods of illegal migration (Dillin, 2006). Apart from this, the legal citizens of Texas also need to take action against this. They should try to inform the authorities whenever they find illegal immigrants residing near them, especially if these citizens are involved in illegal activities. This would be deemed as whistle blowing and may be disrespected by some members of the community. Nevertheless, those who realize the high costs that Texas incurs due to these illegal immigrants would realize that it is the correct action to take. As Fox News, “The cost of harboring illegal immigrants in the United States is a staggering $113 billion a year -- an average of $1,117 for every “native-headed” household in America -- according to a study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)” (Barnes, 2010). Thus, this problem can be solved through the simple increasing of awareness and security concerning immigration, which will lead to the state being able to focus its resources elsewhere and continue its journey to development and prosperity. References A Lone Star Report. (2006). Illegal Immigration Cost to Texas. Chinatown Connection.com. Barnes, E. (2010). Illegal Immigration Costs U.S. $113 Billion a Year, Study Finds. FoxNews.com. Dilln, J. (2006). How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico. The Christian Science Monitor. Morrow, R. (2009). Immigration: Rich Diversity or Social Burden? Twenty-First Century Books. Rahman, M. (2010). Texas officials calculate costs of illegal immigrants. Immigration Chronicles – Chron.Com. Read More