Cost of local communities’ services for illegals is discussed at House Judiciary Committee hearing

August 3, 2006

Local communities spend millions of taxpayer dollars each year in providing public safety, health care and education, for illegal immigrants. House Judiciary Committee members heard the testimony on August 2 at the latest in a series of field hearings on immigration.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, the committee chairman, said the hearings are necessary to ensure that any immigration reform is thoroughly thought out. He promised that past mistakes, such as the Simpson-Massoli bill of 1986, would not be repeated. The 1986 legislation gave amnesty to more than 3 million illegal immigrants without what he described as any real enforcement against those still entering the country illegally.

'Immigration is an emotional issue for millions of Americans, but we cannot allow emotion alone to dictate the manner in which we respond to this pressing national issue,' Sensenbrenner said, adding 'I believe that the American people expect and deserve members of Congress to approach immigration policy in a thoughtful, factual and responsible manner.'

The hearing was held at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego, and was filled to capacity with residents and media.

Five witnesses, most of them in favor of stricter border and workplace enforcement, were questioned by the panel. They included Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich; Kevin J. Burns, chief financial officer at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz.; Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation; Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca; and Wayne Cornelius, a professor at UC San Diego.

Antonovich said illegal immigration is crippling Los Angeles County's budget. He said that of the 10.2 million people who live in his county, nearly 12 percent more than 1.2 million are illegal immigrants.

'The fiscal drain on the taxpayers by those who are here illegally is catastrophic,' Antonovich said. 'In public safety, health care and social services, illegal (immigrants) cost Los Angeles County taxpayers nearly $1 billion per year. This does not even include the cost for education.' Further, Antonovich said, L.A. County officials estimate that nearly 26 percent of visits to county emergency centers are made by illegal immigrants, costing the county untold millions more dollars.

Rector, a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, delivered a similar message to the committee and added that if it becomes law, the cost of the Senate's immigration proposal to taxpayers would be insurmountable.

'The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that each immigrant who has not completed high school will impose a net cost on U.S. taxpayers of nearly $100,000 over his lifetime,' Rector said. 'In the long run, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (the Senate bill), if enacted, would prove the largest expansion of government welfare in 35 years. The overall governmental costs of the amnesty could be $30 billion per year or higher.'

Cornelius, the UCSD professor, disagreed with Rector, saying that strict border enforcement would only make a bad situation worse. Cornelius said a comprehensive package that offers a guest-worker program and legalization for illegal immigrants already in the country would be a better plan, as it would allow illegal immigrants to freely go back and forth to their home countries rather than staying in the United States permanently, thus reducing the burden on public coffers.

Baca, who heads the nation's largest sheriff's department, reminded the panel that any plans to include local law enforcement in enforcing immigration law would cost more than $100 million, and that the decision to use local law enforcement to apprehend illegal immigrants should be left up to local communities, not the federal government.

Nearly 26 percent of L.A. County Jail inmates are illegal immigrants, Baca said, and 70 percent of criminal illegal immigrants recommit crimes within five years.

'Even after they're deported, they find their way back in,' Baca said. 'In order to be effective, that border needs to be secure. Sheriff's (deputies) in our county cannot enforce the law without the proper funding.'