Services Cut For Taxpayers To Pay For Illegal Immigrants (Op-Ed By William Haupt III)

“The economic impact of illegal immigration on taxpayers is catastrophic.” – Ric Keller

Photo Credit: Sandor Csudai. KNUM.org. Creative Commons

By William Haupt III [Tennessee Watchdog Journalist, Columnist, Author, and Citizen Legislator via The Center Square] –

When a group of 77 Democrat lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden recently criticizing his open border policies, this was the first major criticism by Democrats over Biden’s attempts to cram their cities with illegal aliens. This came as a reaction to big city Democrats who were trying to meet their budgets for next year. They found there was no way that they could continue providing the same services to their legal constituents and still pay out big bucks to support Biden’s illegal immigrants too.

As millions of Americans pay taxes this week, Biden is rolling out the welcome mat for lawbreakers at their expense. There is no greater pain than to watch Biden cut checks from our hard-earned tax dollars to spend on hotel bills, debit cards and cell-phones for illegal immigrants who snuck across our border. Biden is treating the illegal crossers like welcomed U.S. tourists, instead of law-violating criminals.

Biden’s latest fiscal budget cuts funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by 8%. He increased funding by 700% for processing centers, flights and busing to transport these illegal immigrants all around the U.S. The guy who is supposed to keep bad guys out has created his own travel agency.

“Everything is under control at the border. Our plan is working. Just give it a chance.” – Joe Biden

Biden declared through an executive order he is ending all punishment for those sneaking into the country. He now prefers to call this “irregular” migration. The feds are phasing out all temporary facilities that use to detain illegal immigrants. Once apprehended, they are fingerprinted and handed an Order of Release on Recognizance, granting them a legal right to travel anywhere in the United States.

While open-border Democrats ignore the enormous toll on Americans of higher taxes, overcrowded classrooms, ERs, housing shortages and increased violent crime, someone’s got to pay for what Biden created. Since nobody has offered to pay his bills for him, he’s “volunteered” the American taxpayers.

“I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.” – Barack Obama

Border states have long been overwhelmed by debt from illegal immigrants. It costs California $21.76 billion and Texas $8.88 billion annually in education, healthcare, law enforcement, plus welfare and more. These migrants are magnets for violent crime and U.S. taxpayers pay the bills to imprison them.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used local funds to fly migrants into blue states, Democrats blasted him for trying to score “political points” with taxpayers. DeSantis retorted, “The $12 million that financed these flights was only a tiny portion of the money Florida was spending on illegals.”

DeSantis noted since it was Democratic sanctuary states who brought these migrants here its their obligation to shelter them.

“We’ve welcomed many Cubans to our state who’ve contributed to our growth and prosperity. This is Biden’s problem to solve, not Florida’s problem.” – Ron DeSantis

For Democrat-led cities and states, similar migrant flights arranged to blue states have made it very clear what the actual price of dealing with floods of illegal migrants costs taxpayers. It has been a three year nightmare for blue states trying to support all the illegal aliens Biden has shipped to blue states across America. Now to meet their budgets, they are forced to cut services to the taxpayers. Because of their distance from the border, Democratic blue states felt insulated from the border state problems. But considering the droves of illegal aliens Biden has allowed to settle throughout the country, the ever-increasing costs to support them has become a problem for all Americans.

New York, a sanctuary city, spent $8 million a day this year to care for migrants, including housing some 3,000 families in hotels for hundreds of dollars a night. In Massachusetts where liberal cities like Boston and Cambridge have proclaimed themselves sanctuaries, they spent millions in tax dollars to expand shelter systems to house illegal immigrants. This cost taxpayers over $140 million so far.

Several Democratic states, including California, Illinois, and New York, have expanded access for illegal migrants to social programs like Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, and Section 8 housing. And now they face budget-busting unanticipated bills as word gets out they’re giving illegal immigrants a free ride.

As more illegal migrants move north, the immigration conversation in Democratic cities is changing. Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said the city is being “destroyed by the migrant crisis.” He has complained that Biden “failed” the city and he has demanded federal aid to pay for this crisis. In the interim, Adams is trying to coax arriving migrants into other suburban New York communities.

Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, fell into disfavor with other far left governors with his controversial plan early in 2023 when he joined the Republicans in busing illegal migrants out-of-state. He sent them to Democrat-run states and cities such as New York and Chicago.

“We must say no to illegal immigration so we can continue to say yes to legal immigration.” – Bill Clinton

Last year, Oregon passed legislation establishing the Universal Representation Fund, providing $15 million in “free” legal services and representation for illegal aliens facing deportation. This year, New Jersey will spend $15 million to provide healthcare benefits and lunches to illegal alien children.

Because of Biden’s open-border policies, crimes by illegal aliens have soared over the past two years in every conceivable category. This includes homicide, manslaughter, robbery, theft, sexual assault and drug trafficking. There is also a massive increase in gang activity throughout America.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested 1,142 illegal aliens who were convicted of assault, battery or domestic violence; 1,614 who were convicted of driving under the influence; and 2,239 were convicted of drug possession and trafficking. Additionally, CBP has arrested 62 illegal aliens convicted of homicide and manslaughter and 365 convicted of sexual offenses and sex trafficking.

Ronald Reagan told us, “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.” On his first day in office, Biden eliminated border enforcement, terminating 89 successful border policies within a year. This dropped the number of illegal immigrants detained from 11,000 to 3,000 a month, the lowest since 1,999. Under Biden we have the highest number of illegal aliens entering the U.S. per day in our history!

We don’t have a country if we don’t have a border. No nation can survive if it has open borders and a welfare state to support a population who sees it as a place that has everything they want and all that they need is theirs for the taking – no questions asked. America is sadly becoming the land of the free lunches and the home of the illegal immigrants instead of the land of the free and home of the brave!

“Hey! This is the sheriff you’re talking about, with a gun and badge that enforces the law. Nothing is going to stop me from cracking down on illegal immigration as long as the law is there.” – Joe Arpaio

About the Author: William Haupt III is a retired professional journalist, author, and citizen legislator in California for over 40 years and now lives in Tennessee. He got his start working to approve California Proposition 13. His work also appears in The Center Square, The Western Journal, Neighbor Newspapers, KPXJ 21 (Shreveport, LA), Killeen Daily Herald, Aberdeen American News, InsideNova, Kankakee Daily Journal, Monterey County Weekly, Olean Times Herald, The Greeneville Sun and more. Follow William on Twitter @iii_haupt.