Speech #1090054006

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to bring attention to the issue of illegal immigration that is perhaps the most important concern to my Texas constituents. I want to address just one matter. the cost. Government and academic estimates indicate there are 9 to 11 million illegal people living in the United States. Immigration officials estimate that the illegal population grows by as many as 500.000 a year. some say 4.000 a day cross into Texas from their southern border. Someone pays for this illegal activity. and that somebody is the American public. not the illegal immigrants. There is a tremendous strain on local and State communities because of unrestricted illegal immigration throughout Texas and the entire United States. While it is the Federal Governments responsibility to control immigration. it is the people of the States and local communities that pay the cost. They are the victims of illegal immigration. Those Americans spend millions of tax dollars on education. health care. and criminal justice for those that are here illegally. Donald Huddle. a Rice University economics professor. has done a study that estimated the cost that we pay for illegals in this country. This chart here shows that the American public pays approximately $32 billion a year for the cost of illegal immigrants. such as public education. It is about $5 billion Americans pay. Social security. $3 billion. Medicaid. $3 billion. Total cost to American taxpayers. about $32 billion a year we pay the cost of illegal immigration. When this study was done. the population of illegals in the United States was about 5 million. Now the population has doubled. and the costs have more than doubled.