News

Jan 26, 2010

We have elected a new governor and some state legislators; yet, we have heard little discussion concerning ways to reduce the stress of overburdened taxpayers.

Our local news organizations and others have addressed many issues facing our state, but for some unexplainable reasons haven't reported and addressed the issues caused by illegal immigration. I would like to share another important state and national issue concerning illegal immigration, because this issue is so grossly ignored by the main media sources. A report prepared by Fair Federation for American Immigration Reform has analyzed a state-by-state cost to taxpayers caused by illegal immigration.

Our New Jersey governor and Legislature need to address this major tax burden if we are to accomplish any future tax relief.
The illegal immigration population residing in New Jersey is costing the state's taxpayers nearly $2.1 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration.

This estimate is derived from analysis of public expenditures on just three of several areas of expenditures for about 372,000 illegal alien residents. That annual tax burden amounts to about $800 per New Jersey household headed by a native-born resident. Even if sales, income and property taxes that may be collected from illegal immigrants -- estimated at $488 million -- are subtracted from the fiscal outlays, the net costs to New Jersey's taxpayers still amount to nearly $1.6 billion per year.

Even without accounting for all of the numerous other areas in which costs associated with illegal immigration are being incurred by New Jersey taxpayers, the program areas analyzed in this study indicate that the burden is substantial and that the costs are rapidly increasing.

The nearly $2.1 billion in costs incurred by New Jersey taxpayers annually result from outlays in the following areas:
Education. Based on estimates of the illegal immigrant population in New Jersey and documented costs of K-12 schooling, New Jerseyites spend more than $1.85 billion annually on education for the children of illegal immigrants. This estimate does not include programs for limited English students, remedial educational programs or breakfast and lunch programs available to students from low-income families. An estimated 11.7 percent of the K-12 public school students in New Jersey are children of illegal aliens.

Health care. Taxpayer-funded, unreimbursed medical outlays for health care provided to the state's illegal alien population amount to an estimated $200 million a year.

Incarceration. The uncompensated cost of incarcerating deportable illegal immigrants in New Jersey's state and local prisons amounts to about $50 million a year. This estimate includes only prison personnel costs and not short-term or other detention costs related law enforcement and judicial expenditures, or the monetary costs of the crimes that led to incarceration.

In addition, the possibility for family members of the current illegal alien population to come to the United States to reunite families would increase the size of the poverty and near-poverty population likely to use public services.

Federal law has provided avenues for the state and local governments to act to lessen the fiscal burden of illegal immigration, but state and local governments in New Jersey are not using those resources. Our state leaders have been silent concerning many issues facing our state, including illegal immigration.