The issue of illegal aliens’ must be addressed

Americans pay nearly $22 billion yearly supplying illegal immigrants with welfare benefits that include food assistance programs such as free school lunches in public schools, food stamps and a nutritional program, also known as WIC, for low-income women and their children. Tens of billions more are spent on other social services, medical care, public education and legal costs such as incarceration and public defenders.

With approximately 400,000 aliens currently residing illegally in the state, the largest fiscal liability is public education representing a cost at $1.85 billion annually.

Taxpayer-funded, unreimbursed medical outlays for health care provided to the state’s illegal alien population amount to an estimated $200 million a year.

The uncompensated cost of incarcerating deportable illegal aliens in New Jersey’s state and local prisons amounts to about $50 million a year.

The illegal alien population residing in New Jersey cost the taxpayers of this state nearly $2.1 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. For every New Jersey household headed by a native-born resident, that adds an additional $800 to their yearly costs.

The price tag of illegal immigration would be significantly higher if other cost areas were calculated, such as preventive health programs, special English instruction, and interpretation services in courts and hospitals, welfare programs used by U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, and welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal alien workers.

If the prospect of amnesty were passed in any form, family members of the current illegal alien population would be sponsored to come to the United States reuniting with families, which would increase the size of the poverty and near-poverty population likely to use public services.

Citizens are losing their savings, homes, and jobs, and to add insult to injury should The Healthcare Plan pass we would be mandated to pay for health coverage or pay a fine. We will still pay for those taxpayer-funded, unreimbursed medical outlays.

New Jersey cannot continue to overlook the immense burden placed on the state budget and expect its own citizens to pay when they cannot support themselves.

If we are to accomplish any future tax relief the issue of illegal aliens’ must be addressed.

~ Joe Sinagra