The Illegal Economy

Essay by fatbastardCollege, Undergraduate November 2006

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

Downloaded 48 times

The United States is known for being one of the greatest countries in the world, and is idolized by a plethora of people; many want to move here to improve their lives for themselves and their families. If these people come by breaking the lawn, is that affecting us who are citizens? Is the American economy going down because illegal immigrants are coming to the United States? Yes, so how is the American economy going to bounce back to what it used to be?

As the number of illegal immigrants rises to approximately 12 million in the United States, we are obligated to think that to have a job they must pay some taxes to give some earned money back to the economy. A study performed by the Center for Immigration Studies states that only an estimated 0.6% of illegal immigrants pay income tax per household. This 0.6% only adds up to $1,371 paid in federal income taxes.

When a house is supported by an illegal immigrant, is on average, larger and has a smaller income he or she pays only about one-fifth as much as a house with a legal citizen supporting a particular house. If one were to pay attention only to taxes, illegal immigrants have paid $1,687 in social security tax, which is approximately 1.2% of the national total in 2002.

That amount is what the immigrants pay back, but what do they use that costs Americans money? In an illegal immigrant household, the average inhabitants are about 2.7 people per house. Of those 2.7 per house, only 70% of them are uninsured. This costs Americans because illegal immigrants use about $591 per year, per household to treat the people that are uninsured. That is 13.1% of the national total. Legal citizens cost the national government $266...