Illegal aliens: a welfare nation

The Center of Immigration Studies has a new study out today on the illegal immigration situation, based on US Census data and using analytical methods accepted by the Pew Hispanic Center, the Dept of Homeland Security, the Census Bureau and other institutions. Among its findings:

+ Immigrants account for one in eight U.S. residents, the highest level in 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13.

+ Overall, nearly one in three immigrants is an illegal alien. Half of Mexican and Central American immigrants and one-third of South American immigrants are illegal.

+ Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens.

+ Of adult immigrants, 31 percent have not completed high school, compared to 8 percent of natives. Since 2000, immigration increased the number of workers without a high school diploma by 14 percent, and all other workers by 3 percent.

+ The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 33 percent, compared to 19 percent for native households.

+ The poverty rate for immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) is 17 percent, nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for natives and their children.

+ 34 percent of immigrants lack health insurance, compared to 13 percent of natives. Immigrants and their U.S.-born children account for 71 percent of the increase in the uninsured since 1989.

+ The primary reason for the high rates of immigrant poverty, lack of health insurance, and welfare use is their low education levels, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.

On the Corner, CIS's Mark Krikorian explains the welfare stat this way:

This isn't because they're plotting to rip us off, but because they're 19th century workers in a 21st century economy, and simply don't have the tools to support themselves. The result is government-subsidized immigration, with taxpayers footing the bill for all this "cheap" labor.

The report concludes that: "Even during the great wave of immigration at the turn of the 19th century, the immigrant population was much less than half what it is today." We simply are being swamped, and there should be a time out for assimilation. Yet as a liberal, Spanish-speaking friend admitted to me yesterday, in a conversation about what each side in the immigration debate is loath to admit, that on his pro-immigration side, "The uncomfortable truth is that Latino immigrants are not assimilating."

According to the data, in Texas, my state, 47 percent of all immigrants lack health insurance (versus 18.6 percent of native-born Americans). What do they do when they get sick? Go to public hospitals, and get treated at the taxpayer's expense. I do not favor turning away sick people, whatever their immigration status. But come on, we shouldn't be letting them in in the first place. What are our own citizens who lack health insurance, and who need public care, supposed to do? Stand in line behind citizens of other countries who are here illegally? It's not right. Similarly on the public schooling situation, I'm aware of a Texas public elementary school where a senior administrator admitted to native parents from the neighborhood that their kids were going to be kept behind because the school has so many Hispanic kids whose English skills are poor to non-existent that it affects the quality of the education for all kids. Is that right?

Shockingly, an estimated 50 percent of the foreign-born population of Texas are in this country illegally -- 7 percent of the total Texas population. Almost one in 10 Texans -- and half of all immigrants -- have no legal right to be in this country. And this isn't a serious crisis? Apparently not to my newspaper: as my Dallas Morning News colleague Mike Hashimoto points out, the NYTimes, USA Today and other major papers carried stories about the new study today, but we didn't.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2007/11/illegal-immigrants-a-welfare-n.html