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by Colleen Mart

Created on: November 01, 2009

Illegal immigration: Arrest them or send them home

This question has a simple answer, send illegal immigrants home. Many may argue that it is not cost effective to spend the money to deport people who have entered our country without legal documentation, but think of what it will cost to support these lawbreakers in our prisons. What are some other costs associated with letting illegal immigrants stay in our country? Let's take a look.

How many people have immigrated to America with a legal visa and then just stayed here? On October 11, 2009, the New York Times reported that out of 11 million people that have entered the United States with a legal visa, it is estimated that approximately 40% did not exit the country when their visa expired. The government has already spent more than $1 billion of taxpayer money on a program to monitor visiting foreigners since September 11, 2001, but there is not an effective follow up to ensure that these people exit our country as required. How much more taxpayer money will we have to spend on a program to monitor foreigners in our country?

It is more than just government programs that cost American taxpayers. Our country's environment suffers greatly from illegal immigrants that cross our border from Mexico. On September 8, 2009, the Phoenix Examiner reported that garbage dumped by illegal immigrants just in the state of Arizona amounts to more than 2 million pounds of trash. But that's not all these lawbreakers have cost the environment. Between 1996 and 2007 more than 6,500 fires were started by illegal immigrants who did not extinguish their campfires. This resulted in 247 wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and structures and over 1 million acres of land with damage estimates nearly a half billion dollars just in the year 2007.

Another hotly debated issue is the cost of health care and social services for illegal immigrants. If a person enters our country illegally and is injured or becomes ill American taxpayers, many of them that cannot afford health care for themselves and their families, pay for medical assistance with their tax dollars for these lawbreakers. Social services are stretched to the limit just providing services needed by Americans citizens, and these programs are beginning to fail which may be due in part to the influx of illegal immigrants using services to which they are not entitled. Since 1996, America has spent nearly $4 billion for social services for immigrants in this country illegally. Americans also pay the cost of babies that are born to illegal immigrant mothers. The mother then becomes another burden to taxpayers because without documentation, she cannot find employment, but is allowed to stay because her baby is now a citizen. Taxpayers pay for programs to support these mothers.

It is a logical deduction that a person who breaks the law to enter our country would not be a law abiding citizen once they are here. In September 2008, the Center for Immigration Studies reported that 80% of the illegal aliens that Operation Community Shield has arrested are a "significant menace to the public," in fact 40% of illegal aliens has violent criminal records in addition to their immigration violations. Currently there are more than 400,000 illegal immigrants locked up in American penal institutions at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion to American taxpayers since 2001.

Obviously it is more cost effective to return these lawbreakers to their home countries.

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