Fed Up!, by Rick Perry: on Immigration
Barack Obama:
Send 1,200 National Guard troops to southern border
President Obama is not trying to do just enough to create the impression of some activity to address border security. He announced that he will send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border, as a temporary measure, until an additional
1,000 Border Patrol agents are on the job. This has generated headlines--and I suppose it is better than the alternative of no additional troops or officers--but it is really a drop in the bucket. Consider that of those 1,200 troops, only
286 were assigned to Texas. The southern border of the United States stretches 1,954 miles, and 1,255 of them are in Texas. We have 60 percent of the border, yet less than 25 percent of the resources were given to
Texas to deal with it. In the face of the soaring violence infesting our border communities as a result of the drug trade, this paltry effort is simply inviting more problems.
Source: Fed Up!, by Gov. Rick Perry, p.124
Nov 15, 2010
Rick Perry:
Illegal immigration cost TX $928M in one year
A 2006 report by the Texas comptroller's office estimated the budgetary impacts of illegal immigration in Texas. The report found that approximately 135,000 undocumented students in Texas public schools cost the state $957 million in just the
2004-2005 school year. The comptroller's report cited incarceration and uncompensated health care as the two largest costs associated with illegal immigrants to local government entities in Texas.
These two items costs local government $1.44 billion over a one-year period.Of course, those living in Texas illegally also provide income to the state because of increased economic activity, sales tax, and property taxes
(either directly or through rent subsidizing the property owner). But adding the estimated revenues and costs to both the state and local governments, Texas taxpayers were out $928 million in 2005.
Source: Fed Up!, by Gov. Rick Perry, p.121
Nov 15, 2010
Ronald Reagan:
1986 reform legalized 3 million undocumented immigrants
We have already been burned once by false promises of border security in exchange for tying security to other aspects of the immigration debate. President Reagan, in 1986, signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which legalized close to
3 million undocumented immigrants. The laws was supposed to be a comprehensive solution with provisions intended to clamp down on border security.
These provisions were never enforced, and the subsequent explosion in illegal crossings has resulted in some 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States today. An estimated 1.8 million illegal immigrants are currently residing in
Texas, compared with 1.1 million in 2000. In ten years, that represents an increase of 54 percent, or 70,000 persons each year coming to our state illegally.
Source: Fed Up!, by Gov. Rick Perry, p.120
Nov 15, 2010
Page last updated: Aug 18, 2011