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The costs of immigration

Your recent piece touched the tip of the iceberg concerning costs of immigration into our country ("33 million people in U.S. not born here," Page 1, Wednesday). These figures show a greater crisis.

The Federation of American Immigration Reform reported in August that, based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, Americans pay $7.4 billion annually for educating illegal aliens' children. In Colorado, the cost broke down to $140.6 million for the state's estimated 144,000 illegal aliens and their children. Californians paid $2.1 billion.

Even as states struggle with billions in debt, our leaders continue to advocate massive immigration of 1.5 million annually, and they do nothing to stop 800,000 illegal immigrants each year.

Let's examine the costs. According to the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, illegal aliens have cost U.S. workers $133 billion in job losses. Mexican immigrants send home $10.5 billion annually. In 2002, foreign workers sent $25 billion back home to Latin America, followed by $16 billion to Asia.

U.S. unemployment jumped from 6.1 percent to 6.4 percent in June, which is equal to 18 million Americans out of work. Our country is $6.4 trillion in debt. It's climbing as our corporations outsource to India and China, while forcing us to pay the $7.4 billion to educate children illegally here. More than 890,000 holders of H-1B visas (for aliens given temporary working status) displaced Americans from their jobs.

Making matters worse, immigrants are a full 75 percent more likely to use food stamps, medical benefits and housing assistance -- costing $68 billion annually.

Let's move to the crime. More than 75 percent of all illegal drugs come across our unguarded borders. More than 25 percent of prisoners in federal prisons are illegal aliens. They cost us $900 million per year to feed and house them.

How about diseases? Try 7,000 new cases of leprosy in three years that have crossed over from Mexico, India and Brazil. Include 16,000 new cases of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis that is incurable.