Reuters reports:
While America’s debate over immigration has been dominated recently by crackdowns in states like Arizona and Alabama, California legislators are trying to turn that tide with a bill to protect illegal immigrants that they dub the “anti-Arizona.”
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A bill currently working its way through the California legislature would block local law enforcement from referring a detainee to immigration officials for deportation unless that person has been convicted of a violent or serious felony.“California cannot afford to become another Arizona,” said California Assembly member Tom Ammiano, the bill’s sponsor. One of the bill’s sponsors, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, calls the effort the “anti-Arizona.”
It would be great if the United States could throw open its borders and welcome in every impoverished person from around the world. But we simply can’t afford it. And neither can California. The $92.1 billion budget the state passed last month has an $8 billion hole in it. No one knows where California is going to find the money to make up that gap.
Meanwhile, the much maligned state of Arizona not only balanced their budget this year, they managed to stash away $450 million for a rainy day.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that California spent $21,755,953,468 on illegal immigrants in 2009 (the most recent year available). A 2009 Los Angeles Times article, using pre-recession 2006 numbers, pegged the number a little lower:
There were 2.8 million illegal immigrants living in California in 2006, the last year for which there are relatively good figures, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. That represented about 8% of the state’s population and roughly a quarter of the nation’s illegal immigrants.
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There are roughly 19,000 illegal immigrants in state prisons, representing 11% of all inmates. That’s costing $970 million during the current fiscal year. The feds kick in a measly $111 million, leaving the state with an $859 million tab.
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If you figure that the children of illegal immigrants attending K-12 schools approximates the proportion of illegal immigrants in the population, the bill currently comes to roughly $4 billion. Most is state money; some local property taxes.
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Illegal immigrants aren’t entitled to welfare, called CalWORKs. But their citizen children are. Roughly 190,000 kids are receiving welfare checks that pass through their parents. The cost: about $500 million, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.
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The state is spending $775 million on Medi-Cal healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to the legislative analyst. Of that, $642 million goes into direct benefits. Practically all the rest is paid to counties to administer the program. The feds generally match the state dollar-for-dollar on mandatory programs.
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There also are other taxpayer costs — especially through local governments — but those are the biggies for the state. Add them all up and the state spends well over $5 billion a year on illegal immigrants and their families.
