Undocumented Immigrants and Reform

By Hootsbuddy

The illegal aliens trope is getting old. Language in every proposal specifically prohibits subsidies for illegals, but the anti-immigrant crowd doesn't allow facts to get in the way of their position. Here's a link to Southern Poverty Law Center's latest on the Center for Immigration Studies, a leading anti-immigrant group. 

The irony of their position is that the GAO already looked into the problem a couple years ago thanks to our ever-vigilant Republican brothers and sisters.

When Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which required Medicaid applicants
and beneficiaries to document their citizenship, the Republican proponents of the
documentation requirements said that these provisions were necessary to reduce the
fraudulent use of taxpayer resources due to �outright theft of Medicaid benefits by illegal
aliens.� Democratic members opposed the new requirements. They cited statements by Mark
McClellan, the former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who
said that a report by the Inspector General �does not find particular problems regarding false
allegations of citizenship, nor are we aware of any.�

The majority staff surveyed nine states to assess whether the documentation requirements have
achieved the goal of saving the taxpayer money by excluding illegal immigrants from Medicaid
coverage.4 Of the nine states surveyed, six states were able to provide data on both (1) the additional state expenditures due to the citizenship documentation provisions and (2) the
number of undocumented immigrants discovered as a result of the new requirements.5
The six states reported that the costs to the states and federal taxpayers to administer the
program since implementation began were $16.6 million. Since the federal matching rate on
administrative costs is generally 50%, the additional federal spending on these administrative
costs is estimated to be $8.3 million.

The states reported that the total number of undocumented immigrants identified through the
documentation requirements was eight. Three states (Colorado, Minnesota, and Wisconsin)
reported identifying no undocumented immigrants. Two states (Kansas and Washington)
reported identifying one undocumented immigrant each. And one state (Louisiana) reported
identifying six undocumented immigrants.

For the six states, the administrative costs of implementing the documentation requirements far
exceeded the savings to the taxpayers. The total regular Medicaid enrollment in these six states
was 3,655,500 in the most recent year. The average federal cost of providing care to a nondisabled
Medicaid beneficiary under 65 in the six states ranges from $1,138 to $1,816 per year.
Assuming that the undocumented immigrants who were denied coverage had average
Medicaid expenses, the total savings to the federal government from identifying these eight
individuals was $11,048.

According to the data reported by the six states, for every $100 spent by federal taxpayers to
administer the documentation requirements, the federal government saved only 14 cents. By
way of comparison, for every $100 the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of
Health and Human Services expends to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse, the federal
government recovers nearly $1,300.

The Wonk Room adds a coda.

CIS and Rector aren�t likely to admit it, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, had the US legalized undocumented immigrants under the 2007 immigration bill, it would have generated $48 billion in new revenue from administrative fees and income and payroll taxes alone.

As a cafeteria manager I was keenly aware of immigration issues. When Mexicans finally took over the dish room and later learned to be cooks and servers I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It meant the end of broken dishes, fighting and bad dispositions, lateness and absenteeism. And when someone quit for another job or to return to Mexico on family matters they always brought a candidate for replacement. "This is my friend..." "This is my sister..." "This is my cousin...."

I was once visited by the INS. I was scared half to death but the man was very accommodating. All he wanted to see was my I-9 file, a printout of the most recent payroll and the names and contacts of the officers of the company. That's all. And I was to report to his office downtown for an appointment when I had these documents. All went well and he found one of about fifteen I-9 forms that seemed suspicious. A few days later he stopped by and quietly took that lady away.

It is my view that immigrants both documented and otherwise are contributing far more to the economy than they are costing. Over the years I'm certain to have employed some using false Social Security numbers. Payroll and income taxes were withheld from their wages as though they were legal but I never saw a dime returned because it was undocumented. In reality, as the Wonk Room points out,  billions of dollars flow into state and federal treasuries in the form of taxes collected from undocumented workers.