A California Republican

There are many people who believe that illegal immigrants are the problem with California’s budget.

Granted, there is a lot of spending on illegal immigrants. The schools they attend are funded with state money. They go to state universities and pay in-state tuition (if they graduated from a CA high school), and the state funds the universities. They use health care, they are in prisons. They use the law enforcement resources, water and energy, and the state spends millions on their care in emergency rooms and clinics.

The state does spend a lot of money on illegal immigrants. But it is no where near the amount people think. The money spent on illegal immigration isn’t the $21+ billion that is needed to fix the budget. No one knows how much it is. This is because schools don’t ask about immigration status. Health care is provided regardless of immigration status. It is insane that these services are provided regardless of immigration status. No one knows how much stopping these services would save, because there is no current way to track them.

Illegal immigrants can come to California and get kidney transplants, they can get multiple kidney transplants. Illegla immigrants take away spots in colleges that residents could use. Illegal immigrants take spots in elementary and high schools that could otherwise be used to make smaller classes for legal residents and citizens.

Some say to provide amnesty for illegal immigrants? Why? They broke the law, and knew they broke the law when they did it. There is no issue of these people not knowing they were breaking the law.

One of the arguments in support of illegal immigration is that the illegals perform jobs that citizens wouldn’t do, and at a lower wage. This argument says that it is okay to exploit illegal immigrants. However, wouldn’t the man that just lost his construction job be willing to provide for his family by taking a dishwasher job? Shouldn’t the companies be forced to pay minimum wage to their employees and provide them with the protection of the law?

The 14 million people that are un-employed would take the jobs that the illegals are holding. Wouldn’t it be better for people to come off social services and be placed in these jobs? Why should illegals get the benefits of having a job when there are legal residents who do not have one?

Illegal immigrants don’t provide a benefit to California, or anywhere. They provide a drain. They are law-breaking people who think they can simply take what they want. They don’t respect the laws of this state, or this country. If they did, they wouldn’t be here illegally. What’s more, they don’t want to be American. They want to hold onto their culture, language, nationality and flag; they just want to live here. So why grant them legal status simply because they broke the law and managed to avoid deportation? It is a ridiculous sentiment.

However, they aren’t the solution to the budget problem. Banning illegals from services won’t solve the whole budget problem, but it would solve a portion of it.

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