The Illegal Immigrant Tax

As the beleaguered residents of the "Garden State" face yet another year of spiraling property tax increases, with little realistic hopes for relief, it is useful to ask why New Jersey's state government needs so much money. The answer, of course, is America's dirty little secret: illegal immigrants cost more than they contribute:

A new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) showing that illegal aliens cost New Jersey more than $2.1 billion annually may help explain why the state continues to suffer multi-billion dollar budget deficits, and as Governor Jon Corzine admitted, "one of the worst tax burdens in the United States." The Costs of Illegal Immigration to New Jerseyians analyzes public expenditures for education, medical care, and incarceration for the estimated 372,000 illegal aliens residing in the state.

At $1.85 billion annually, public education for K-12 represents the largest fiscal liability. FAIR estimates about 50,000 children are in the state illegally and an additional 94,000 are children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens. Combined, these students represent about 10.3 percent of New Jersey public school enrollment. Publicly funded, unreimbursed medical outlays for health care cost the state about $200 million a year, while the personnel cost of incarcerating deportable aliens in state and local prisons amounts to about $50 million annually.

Parse this for a minute. Law-abiding residents of New Jersey are being taxed to pay to the expenses of people who are breaking the law, and ruining their communities. New Jerseyans, like the rest of Americans, are being forced by their own government to subsidize their own destruction.

"New Jersey's financial situation is so bad they furloughed 80,000 workers last year, then immediately increased taxes on average citizens to pay their way out of a growing $4.5 billion deficit," said Dan Stein, President of FAIR. "With proof that illegal aliens cost the state at least $2.1 billon per year, New Jersey can longer ignore the massive burden these people are placing on the state budget and they certainly should not be encouraging even more by harboring illegals aliens in sanctuary cities like Trenton."

So much for the "contributions" that illegal immigrant advocates (best exemplified by that shrewd fiscal conservative, George W. Bush) have assured us that tens of millions of Mexicans working for peanuts are making to America's economy. The goal of current US immigration policy (aside from not having an actual policy) is to make the US look like Mexico.

Actually, it's the only Bush administration policy that's actually working exactly as planned. But like all the other Bush policies, it's working to America's detriment.