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Health & Fitness

Open Borders + Welfare State = Disaster

The "Gang of 8" immigration reform package is unfair to the two to three million immigrants waiting lawfully to enter the United States.

This week the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is considering the so-called "Gang of 8" immigration reform package.

Don't be fooled by the rhetoric you are hearing. The bill will provide amnesty now, with citizenship later and declines to seriously address the border security issue. There are those who wish to distract you from the real issues surrounding the debate. It can't be denied that the Gang of 8 immigration reform package undermines the rule of law and is harmful to law-abiding Americans.

On Monday, May 6, Heritage's Senior Research Fellow Robert Rector, released a highly anticipated study about the cost of immigration reform. His study concluded that "Over a lifetime, the former unlawful immigrants together would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay $3.1 tr5illion in taxes." In other words, they would generate a lifetime fiscal deficit (total benefits minus total taxes) of $6.3 trillion in combined federal, state, and local benefits. The annual net cost would be roughly $112 billion. The majority of expense would be the result of increased educational and welfare costs."
Daniel Horowitz, in writing about Robert Rector's Executive summary about the fiscal cost of unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer, pegged it as an "Open Borders + Welfare State = Disaster."  http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2013/05/06/robert-rectors-study...

Admittedly, writes Horowitz:

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Some people don't like to hear it, but the reality of today's redistributive society is that the higher-skilled population transfers a tremendous amount of wealth to the lower-skilled population in the form of the tax code, entitlements, welfare, and social services.  Do we really need to import so many new low-skilled illegal and legal immigrants over the next decade to exacerbate the current unsustainable dynamic?  

Further writes Horowitz, additionally there are a number of likely factors that could result in an even higher cost:

1. What is there are more than 11.5 million illegals?  What if fraudulent documents allow more people to receive amnesty?  In 1986, 25% of applications were fraudulent.  A similar dynamic now wold cost an additional $1.6 trillion, according to Rector.
2. This bill allows the amnestied immigrants to bring in spouses and minor children.  The cost would top $600 billion per 1 million more family members
3.  Every amnesty encourages more illegal immigration , especially when the enforcement is nothing more than a promise.  The number of border crossing have already tripled in recent months.  

And what about the fairness issue?  The "Gang of 8" immigration reform package is unfair to the two to three million immigrants waiting lawfully to enter the United States, and will make our immigration problem worse, as it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter unlawfully.  Unfortunately Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has been drawn into the Gang of 8 by Democrat Senator Schumer to sweeten the pot under the assumption and hope that conservative Republicans will this time accept an immigration reform package hook, line, and sinker because of Rubio's endorsement.

Worse yet, as border security is a key sticking point in this year's immigration debate, only a little more than one-third of senators have been to the southwestern border during their time in office to get a first hand look at the security situation.  

According to President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano the border is secure "and that they only way to improve it is to legalize illegal immigrants, which they argue will help authorities focus on illegal crossings and major criminals."  

Not so say lawmakers who have traveled to the border to see for themselves and ofter come back with a different impression.  When Arizona's Senator John McCain, one of four Republican Gang of Eight members, was showing colleagues the border in March he saw a woman climb over a border barrier right in front of them.  In this incident, border security did apprehend the woman. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/ma/7/two-thirds-of-senat...  

Of even greater concern is that the same approach is being used to enact immigration reform as was used with Obamacare through an attempt to ram immigration reform through Congress without many Members having read the bill.

Such are the frightening similarities of Obamacare to the complex, pie-in-the-sky immigration proposal:  
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/02/morning-bell-5-ways-the-immigration-bill-is-like-obamacare/

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1.  As with Obamacare costing much more than originally anticipated, the Gang of Eight's immigration plan of granting amnesty to those unlawfully in the U.S. will cost $6.3 trillion, burdening American taxpayers even more than they now are.
2.  As with Obamacare false promises exist.  "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it"? is one of the most infamous broken promises of Obamacare.  The immigration plan proposal is going to give legal status and eventual citizenship to those who came here unlawfully without actually securing the border.
3.  You have to pass it to see what's in it applies to both Obamacare and the Gang of Eight immigration proposal.  We are now learning the disastrous makeup of the gigantic Obamacare bill.  The immigration bill likewise gives over congressional authority to federal agencies, allowing unelected bureaucrats to think up all the details later.   
4.  Obamacare will add millions of people to Medicaid rolls, already an unsustainable program in need of reform.  The immigration bill would add millions to the number of people on various taxpayer-funded benefits, from Medicare and Social Security to welfare, at a time when our nation is already $17 trillion in debt!
5.  The immigration proposal, not unlike Obamacare, is filled with perks for special interests. Obmacare is full of favors for Big Labor.  The immigration bill has a myriad of special-interest goodies, not to mention a bonanza for immigration lawyers. 

Conservatives must remain firmly committed to modernizing our immigration system to ensure that our nation enjoys the benefits of immigration by pushing back against liberals (and some Republicans) who are obsessed with ramming through a costly and unnecessary amnesty.

Regardless of political persuasion, the American people should not tolerant a Congress who makes laws that will put a gigantic financial tax burden on future generation by following through with laws that disregard past failures and mistakes. 

No amount of tinkering will make the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill an acceptable solution to our nation's immigration problems.

Published at Illinois Review on May 9, 2013.

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