Letter: Immigrants’ drag on taxpayers understated

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

A Sunday editorial in the Las Vegas Sun regarding Arizona's "strict new immigration law" distorts the facts of the true burden on taxpayers for illegals and their families. Both federal and state budgets are seriously and negatively affected by the presence of illegals, despite the contributions of illegal laborers.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, and based on Census Bureau data, when all taxes are paid and all costs are considered, illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion in 2002. The estimate is that if there were amnesty for illegals, the net fiscal deficit would grow to nearly $29 billion.

The reason for this is that although amnesty would dramatically increase tax revenue, the costs for illegals would rise exponentially because they (and their families) would be eligible for more government programs. The primary reason illegals create a dramatic fiscal deficit is their low education levels (nearly two-thirds lack a high school diploma) and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or their heavy use of most social services.

Sunday's editorial wants to give "illegal immigrants who are productive members of their U.S. communities" permanent residency despite the fact that taxpayers will be shortchanged very seriously. This opinion is exactly what illegal employers love.

Employers who violate the ban on hiring illegals are actually hoarding and privatizing the profits from cheap labor while nationalizing the debt to taxpayers that illegals incur. Elements of the business community that do not want to invest in labor-saving devices and techniques or pay better salaries are a very strong special interest group and apparently favored by writers of the Las Vegas Sun's editorials.

Paula Stone, Henderson