Illegal immigration, the costs to Texas

“Immigration has emerged as the hot-button issue in politics today, both nationally, and on a state level. In fact, in numerous GOP primary races that LSR covered this year, immigration polled as the number one issue – even above that of school finance. Many, of course, dismiss the issue as a federal one. But there are clear implications to state policy – and clear steps the state can take to get a true picture of the problem. Last year, as the immigration issue was barely bubbling up to the political surface, the staff of the Lone Star Report began an in-depth study to determine the costs of illegal immigration to Texas.
The detailed results will be released in an upcoming issue of LSR, but this article will outline the key findings – and the key policy ramifications of those findings.
Based on LSR’s analysis, illegal immigration costs the state a minimum of $4.5 billion a year, with a tax benefit of around $1 billion, for a net cost of $3.5 billion. That number tracks almost exactly the number from a similar study from 2004, drafted by the Federation of American Immigration Reform. And while many costs of immigration are unknowable, there is only one area of public policy where data could shift that number dramatically.
The cost of educating illegal immigrants”

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