There is no difference between a burglar who comes into my home and steals $2,000 and illegals breaking the law of illegal immigration and a lot more such as most do not pay income taxes and costing me $2,000 in additional taxes.
An illegal who comes here and gets a job, and doesn't go on public assistence, doesn't cost you $2k in taxes (No one costs you $2k in extra taxes, even if for some reason $1mil was spent on someone, your share wouldn't be $2k, but I see your talking about an estimate for the total cost of all illegals, not for each one. I'm not sure that claim is correct either, but at least it isn't obviously silly.) A person born in the US who goes on public assistance can cost the country a lot more than $2k. The distinction here isn't where the person was born, but what they do. Even with our ever expanding government (subsidizing those who don't work and putting burdens on those that do) most immigrants still come here to work, not for a handout.
And the thief in the case of taxes is the government, not who the person the money was spent on (at least not if they don't get it fraudulently. They aren't taking from you, the government is.
To the extent they don't pay taxes (and many of them get a job with a fake social security number, that's an additional crime, but it also means they are paying in to Social Security etc., without being able to collect from it later on), its mostly because of the laws making their presence and their working here illegal. Put people at a disadvantage and at risk, and its not surprising if on the average they don't contribute as much.
Not that I'm calling for the repeal of all immigration laws, too rapid of pace of immigration can potentially cause problems, and keeping known criminals and terrorist from immigrating (or at least legally immigrating if you can't stop them from sneaking in) seems to make sense. But it would seem to make sense to allow easier and quicker legal immigration (esp. for those with skills, or with capital to start a business). |
