If you were ever curious about the cost of illegal immigration, The S.J. Mercury answered the question.
Per a June 12 article the average cost of a birth in the U.S. is $8,800. Of course birth complications can increase the cost dramatically. In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture it costs approximately $197,700 to provide for food, shelter and other necessities until the child reaches 17 years old.
Consider that there are 12 to 30 million of illegal immigrates in the U.S. receiving free medial care and benefits. There are hundreds of thousands of births from these illegal immigrants that have already forced the closure of hospitals due to financial losses. It is obvious that the total cost of illegal immigration is costing U.S. taxpayers several hundred billion of dollars.
All of a sudden the cost of lettuce doesn’t sound so cheap – does it?
Jack Ward
The media gives us the casually count in Iraq daily. While all should morn the loss of the brave military personnel, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa put the losses in perspective. During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting discussing Senator Feinstein’s bill to toughen penalties for gang violence, Mayor Villaraigosa said “Since 2001, more than 4000 people have lost their lives to gang violence in California alone.” “That’s more American lives than we lost in Iraq.” Since the population of Iraq and California is similar I’d expect the media to also give us the daily body count from gang violence. Only then will we realize just how dangerous the streets of California are.
Jack Ward
Racists describe their world in terms of race. Racist politicians and activists take the additional step of accusing anyone opposing their racist policies of being racists themselves. Sadly, our president has joined those playing the “race card” in a despicable ploy to ram his Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation through congress.
Consider the facts. The population of Mexico is 108 million, with 60 percent mestizo, 30 percent Amerindian, 9 percent white, and 1 percent other. Estimates place the number of Mexicans here illegally between 12 to 20 million, almost none of whom are “white”. Somewhere between 11 and 18 percent of Mexico’s population has been “exported” as cheap labor, and proposed legislation could double this number.
The unasked question is “Why this ethnic cleansing of Mexico?”
Bob Nystrom
Hallucinatory drugs must be used in abundance in the California Assembly again. The latest example is AB 1471 which would require all new semiautomatic pistols after 2010 to require a mechanism to micro-stamp the gun’s make, model and serial number on the shell casing every time the weapon is fired. Guns without micro-stamping capability will be determined to be - unsafe. It is unclear if government police agencies and politicians with carry permits will be permitted to use these – unsafe –guns.
Of course the reasoning is to catch criminals NOT to infringe on your second amendment rights. But there is no such requirement on revolvers or rifles. So the rational is severely flawed. This legislation assumes that criminals won’t know to use revolvers, rifles, or cartridges catchers to foil the purpose of the legislation.
Micro-stamping will require a mechanical or electronic operation. A mechanical stamp would require an addition devise to imprint the ID and a laser would require an electrical power source. Would the addition of these devises impede the operation of the gun – making them unsafe?
Jack Ward
It is not uncommon for pending legislation to attract support or opposition. But it is uncommon for a single piece of legislation to generate such heated dissent from both ends of the political spectrum. The current proposed legislation addressing immigration is one such a piece of legislation. If you believe everything that is being hyped, this legislation would satisfy everyone’s concern. So why is there so much opposition? Simply put – the public does not believe the politicians or their political rhetoric. Politicians pass legislation that they haven’t read, selectively enforce laws that they have passed, and cynically tell us to reelect them and that they will fix it next time. Currently congress has approval ratings below 30%. It is obvious that the people have lost confidence in our politicians. Even if the proposed immigration legislation is as great as the politicians claim – the people don’t believe them.
Jack Ward