The Problem

Illegal immigration is out of control, especially across the US border with Mexico.

Estimates of illegal immigrants living in the United States:

  • Up to 20,000,000 (Bear Stearns Report, January 2005)
  • 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 (Federation for American Immigration Reform, 2005)
  • 11,000,000 (Pew Hispanic Research Center, 2005)
  • 10,000,000 (Center for immigration Studies, 2004)

The rate of illegal immigration is increasing

  • 1990’s: 700,000 to 800,000 annually
  • 2000 – 2004: over 1,000,000 annually, and climbing (CIS)
  • The number of illegal immigrants in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia increased almost 70% from an estimated 300,000 in 2000 to 500,000 in 2004 (PHRC)

“Other Than Mexican” illegal immigrants pose a national security risk to the U.S.

The serious national security threat posed by “Other Than Mexicans” is not widely understood. Approximately 100,000 illegal immigrants entering the United States from Mexico each year are not Mexicans. The Border Patrol refers to these persons as “OTM’s” – “Other Than Mexicans”

Within the last year, over 450 OTM’s have been apprehended illegally entering the United States from such officially-designated “special interest” countries as:

  • Afghanistan
  • Angola
  • Jordan
  • Qatar
  • Pakistan
  • Yemen

Two border state governors have declared “states of emergency” over illegal immigration.

  • Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
  • Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona

Illegal immigration is expensive – forcing citizens’ taxes higher

In California alone, the annual estimated cost burden of providing education, health care and incarceration for illegal immigrants is over $10 billion:

  • Education. Californians spend approximately $7.7 billion annually on education for illegal immigrant children. Nearly 15 percent of the K-12 public school students in California are children of illegal aliens.
  • Health care. Uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to the state’s illegal alien population amount to about $1.4 billion a year.
  • Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California’s prisons and jails amounts to about $1.4 billion a year (not including related law enforcement and judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes that led to their incarceration).

See articles and supporting statistics describing the illegal immigration problem or why a fence is the logical solution to the illegal immigration problem by clicking here.