Illegal Immigration’s Impact on California’s Economy

Scorching hot sun, hours of hard labor, and less than minimum wage are the working conditions of most illegal immigrants in the state of California. While illegal immigration is beneficial to the employer who seeks cheap labor, it is taking a big toll on California tax payers, due to the fact that illegal immigration is costing California approximately 10.5 billion tax dollars (Sifuentes). Even though most of the illegal immigrants obtraining jobs are simply seeking a better life for themselves, they are also undocumented, meaning they do not pay taxes to the state. In turn, these illegal immigrants are costing the state more money than they are putting into the economy system.

Illegal immigrants are affecting California's education system greatly. The children of illegal immigrants are attending California public schools, while their parents are not paying taxes for that free service provided. To simply send one of those children to school from kindergarten to 12th grade is $7,161 per student, taking a toll of $109 billion total. Since their parents are not paying state taxes, the money the schools get for their children are coming from other sources. In addition to education children of illegal immigrants, schools also have to spend money on classes specifically to educate them. A vast ammount of these students do not speak, nor understand, English so when it is time to take a state test, they do not know enough English to excel on those tests. In turn, this causes the schools to lose even more money, since the schools gain money when their students score high. The loss of money is resulting in larger classes, teacher layoffs, fewer textbooks, elimination of various sports programs, and language classes that aren't Spanish, according to Effects of Illegal Immigration on Public Schools.

Along with education, illegal immigrants steal social security numbers to obtain jobs. For example. in an article written for American Chronical, it is stated that 53% of IFCO 's raided work force were illegal immigrants using stolen social security numbers. These immigrants work for far less than other people which puts many employees out of their jobs. The immigrants are paid so litle comparted to the average worker, that emplyoers often fire them to hire immigrants. Illegal immigrants steal identities, simply to get a below minimum wage job. They also use those social security numbers to open banks accounts, and