By Stephen Skacall
One of the number one issues on the minds of Oklahoma’s voters, especially those of us in the Panhandle, is immigration. How do we deal with the problem? It’s clear that the federal government won’t be doing much to solve the problem in the near future, so states have to take action of their own to fight illegal immigration and the drain they have on our society. According to a recent poll released by Sooner Poll, seventy-nine percent of Oklahomans believe that we should enact a law similar to the recently passed Arizona immigration law.
According to a recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, Oklahoma spent roughly $400 million on services for illegal immigrants and their children on the state and local level in 2009. This study was based on figures from the state as well as from the federal government. The actual amount spent on these services could be even higher, since we don’t know how many illegal immigrants are actually in Oklahoma.
Clearly, we need to take action on the state level to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining state services at taxpayer expense. Illegal immigrants typically do not pay income or property taxes, meaning they don’t pay for the services they’re receiving. These services include welfare checks, food stamps, medicaid, and public schools. I propose that we enact a law to require verification of US citizenship for anyone wanting to receive taxpayer-funded services. The idea that a Mexican or Canadian citizen is somehow entitled to services from the government of Oklahoma is absurd and an injustice to the honest Oklahomans who are in need of these services themselves.
Along with cutting off state services to illegal immigrants, we need to enact tougher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Such employers should immediately lose their business license for a fixed period of time, pay a fine, and perhaps even face jail time.
If the state takes a strong stance against illegal immigration by removing all the things that draw them to our state, many of those already here will leave and many more will be discouraged from ever coming to Oklahoma in the future. This will save our state millions of dollars, which can then be used to help restore our budget to pre-recession levels and fully fund our public school system, highways, and law enforcement agencies.
It’s time for Oklahoma to take a stand. If the federal government doesn’t want to solve the problem of illegal immigration, then we should do whatever we can to make sure that Oklahoma is kept safe from the burden.
Stephen Skacall is the independent candidate for State House District 61, running against incumbent Gus Blackwell. Skacall is a resident of Goodwell and an active parishioner of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Guymon.
If you had done your analysis of the ACTUAL (and not assumed) facts of illegal immigrant contributions vs. costs to the federal budget, you would have found differently.
Illegal immigrants do contribute to tax revenues. They pay sales taxes on their consumption purchases and property taxes on dwellings they own or rent. In addition, many contribute to Social Security and federal and state income taxes. As of 1986, U.S. law requires employers to record the Social Security number and visa information of each immigrant employee. Many illegal immigrants present employers with Social Security cards that have invalid numbers. Between 1986 and 2000, annual Social Security contributions with invalid numbers rose from $7 billion to $49 billion. While the Social Security Administration does not immediately release these funds, they are eventually are rolled into the general funds of the federal government.
An additional example is that the Texas state and local governments spent $1.16 billion to provide services like education, health care and safety, but raised an estimated $1.58 billion in tax revenues. Based on the data, the Texas taxpayer made a $424.7 million profit on its illegal immigrant population in 2006.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscal.html
Mr. Pittman,
I believe that if you read my editorial you’d realize I never mentioned Social Security or federal taxes. I also never mentioned Texas. Why? Because I’m concerned with benefits paid for by the taxpayers of Oklahoma, not of Texas. The Oklahoma Legislature has little to do with federal activities. So my concerns have to do with how Oklahoma’s state taxes are spent.
There are a lot of things that you neglected to mention in your comment. Namely, you failed to mention the fact that the majority of illegal workers in Oklahoma are paid in cash, under the table, and are thus never held responsible for the income tax, state or federal. Many of the illegal workers who are paid in the legal way, and who provide Social Security numbers (typically fake) for tax purposes, claim multiple (often imaginary) dependents so they aren’t taxed the full amount. Many employers fail to do thorough investigations of their workers, thus enabling illegal immigrants to obtain employment in our state.
While illegal immigrants certainly pay sales taxes, they aren’t paying income taxes (and many don’t pay property taxes, either), which means they aren’t paying for many of the services that they receive. Oklahomans are paying for those services, and that’s just plain wrong. Teachers are losing their jobs, hospitals are at risk of closing their doors, and this is largely a result of the money that we waste on illegal immigrants. The State of Oklahoma is not responsible for taking care of foreign citizens. If they want welfare checks or public education, they should go back to their home countries and get it there, instead of living on the backs of hard working Oklahomans.