GTCharlie:

I found an interesting document on illegal immigration in the US:

The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments

It was prepared by the Congressional Budget Office.

According to the document, there are between 11.5 and 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.  Of those approximately 6 to 7 million entered legally and then overstayed their visitor or work visas.  90% of illegal immigrants live in six states:  California, Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Illinois.  Recently there is a trend for the illegal immigrant population to spread into other states.  In most states illegal immigrants make up a very small fraction of the population except in California where they make up 8% of the total population.  Approximately 1.8 million illegal immigrants are children under the age of 18.

There are 7.2 million illegal immigrants employed in the agricultural, construction and service industries.  Illegal immigrants have a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the population.  In 2007 illegal immigrant men experienced a 4.6% unemployment rate as opposed to 6.5% of the rest of the population.  Among women unemployment for illegals was 5.2% as opposed to 8.2% for women in the rest of the population.

The IRS estimates that approximately 6 million illegal immigrants file income tax returns each year.  Other researchers estimate that between 50 and 75% of illegal immigrants pay federal, state and local taxes.  The Social Security Admonistration (SSA) estimates that about half of all ilegal immigrants pay social security taxes.

"Researchers from the Urban Institute, the Migration Policy Institute, the Pew Hispanic Center, and the Center for Immigration Studies have assumed a 55 percent compliance rate for income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes."

"the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California at San Diego conducted a survey of unauthorized immigrants and found that, in 2006, 75 percent had taxes withheld from their paychecks, filed tax
returns, or both."

This was an eye opener for me.  I used to think that most illegals payed little or no taxes.

In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal for any state to esclude children from receiving an education based on the childern's immigration status.  As a result most of the children of illegal immigrants receive an education.  In 2006 there were approximately 53 million schoolchildren in the US.  Approximately 4% of those children are illegal immigrants.  This has increased the budgetary stress on the educational system.

Illegal immigrants are less likely to have health insurance and they are more likely to rely on emergency room and public clinic services.  Since federal laws require some health services to be provided regardless of ability to pay or immigration status, many illegal immigrants receive healthcare services without being able to compensate for them.  (This is no surprise and a big part of the current healthcare debate is due to this.)

"According to a report commissioned by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, in 2000, county governments that share a border with Mexico incurred almost $190 million in costs for providing uncompensated care to unauthorized immigrants; that figure represented about one-quarter of all uncompensated health costs incurred by those governments in that year."

That means that about 25% of uncompensated healthcare is due to illegal immigrants.  (I thought it would be a higher percentage.  Nevertheless, 25% is a lot.)

Some studies estimate that immigrants cost more than they contribute to the tax system; for example:

"Recent estimates indicate that annual costs for unauthorized immigrants in Colorado were between $217 million and $225 million for education, Medicaid, and corrections.42 By comparison, taxes collected from unauthorized immigrants at both the state and local levels amounted to an estimated $159 million to $194 million annually."

"Another report—prepared by the state comptroller of Texas—estimated that, in 2006, the state collected $424 million more in revenue from unauthorized immigrants than it spent to provide education, health care, and law enforcement activities for that population. However, the state estimated that local governments incurred $1.4 billion in uncompensated costs for health care and law enforcement."

Overall, it seems to me that healthcare and education of illegal immigrants cost a lot, more than is offset by the taxes paid by illegal immigrants.  If only 50% of illegal immigrants are paying taxes, then the solution is to liberalize policy so that those people pay their fair share along with everybody else.  a good question is, would it be politcally possible to do so?  I think that the American public would not accept the legalization of 12 million immigrants so easily.