Should California Declare A State of Emergency Along its Border with Mexico?

Should California Declare A State of Emergency Along its Border with Mexico?

August 19, 2005- Last week, New Mexico declared an emergency along its border with Mexico to stem the tide of illegal crossings into the United States. This week, Arizona did the same. Should California join them?

"California, or any other state, shouldn't have to declare a state of emergency to deal with the problems associated with its international border," said Congressman Miller. "It's the federal government's job, but the federal government is failing.

"Since the financial burden is heaviest on the states, they have every right to declare an emergency and work to solve the problem on their own. But it's pretty pathetic the states have to step in to complete the federal government's job."

Declaring a state of emergency:

* Frees up state money to help with border protection.
* Pressures the federal government to do a better job protecting the U.S. border.
* Allows the states, California (if it joins), Arizona and New Mexico, to coordinate their law enforcement to combat illegal
border crossings.

Federal, state and local governments spend billions of dollars each year educating, caring for and incarcerating illegal immigrants. Until the federal government fortifies the border, taxpayers will have to continue to foot the bill for a variety of social services offered to illegals.

Education: Taxpayers are being forced to pay for the schooling of the children of illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants who take low-paying jobs don't pay enough in taxes, if they pay at all, to reimburse taxpayers the $5,000-plus annually it takes to educate each of their children.

The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states $7.4 billion annually-- enough to buy a computer for every junior high student nationwide.

In California, the $2.2 billion spent on the education of the children of illegal immigrants for one year could:

* Pay the salaries of 41,764 teachers, or 14 percent of California's teachers.
* Pay for California 's class sizes to remain capped at 20 students for a year, with $300 million to spare.
* Buy books, computers, and other instructional equipment for 346,689 classrooms, 79 percent of all classrooms in
California.
* Fully fund California's free lunch program for almost two years.

Emergency Health Care: Taxpayers are forced to provide emergency health care for illegal aliens and their children who do not have insurance.

Emergency health care for illegal aliens along the southwestern border is already costing area hospitals $200 million a year, with perhaps another $100 million in extended care costs.

Hospitals must provide emergency treatment to all who walk through the door, regardless of their citizenship status or ability to pay. In 2001, America 's hospitals provided nearly $21 billion in uncompensated health care services.

Hospitals in California rank first in the country in expenditures for providing health care to illegal immigrants.

The Center for Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services reported that for FY 2001, the health care costs for illegal immigrants in California were more than $648 million. California paid 47 percent of these costs, or $304 million, for this mandate.

Population Crisis: In California, we are in the midst of a population crisis that is already affecting every aspect of life in our state and will continue to get worse.

An estimated 7 million illegal immigrants were residing in the United States in January 2000. This is double the size of the illegal immigrant population in January 1990 and constitutes 2.5 percent of the total U.S. population of just over 281 million.

More than one third of the 3.5 million total increase in illegal immigration since 1990 occurred in California and Texas.

California has the highest number of illegal immigrants residing in its borders. The estimated number of illegal alien residents in California was about 2.2 million, or nearly 32 percent of the total number of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Crime: Fifteen percent of California's prison inmates are undocumented aliens, costing the state more than $500 million annually.

Welfare and Government Assistance: Fraudulent Social Security cards, driver's licenses and birth certificates are being bought by thousands of illegal immigrants each year. These false documents are used by individuals to get millions of dollars worth of welfare, public housing and Social Security benefits.

http://www.house.gov/garymiller/CAMexicoEmergency.html