If we are serious about avoiding the fiscal costs of illegal immigration, the only real option is to enforce the law and reduce the number of illegal aliens in the country. First, this would entail much greater efforts to police the nation's land and sea borders. At present, less than 2,000 agents are on duty at any one time on the Mexican and Canadian borders. Second, much greater effort must be made to ensure that those allowed into the country on a temporary basis, such as tourists and guest workers, are not likely to stay in the country permanently. Third, the centerpiece of any enforcement effort would be to enforce the ban on hiring illegal aliens. At present, the law is completely unenforced. Enforcement would require using existing databases to ensure that all new hires are authorized to work in the United States and levying heavy fines on businesses that knowingly employ illegal aliens. Finally, a clear message from policymakers, especially senior members of the administration, that enforcement of the law is valued and vitally important to the nation, would dramatically increase the extremely low morale of those who enforce immigration laws. Policing the border, enforcing the ban on hiring illegal aliens, denying temporary visas to those likely to remain permanently, and all the other things necessary to reduce illegal immigration will take time and cost money. However, since the cost of illegal immigration to the federal government alone is estimated at over $10 billion a year. This is not revealing the massive cost from State and county levels. As California has the highest populations of illegal immigrants in the nation, it obviously why the West coast state has a $14.7 billion budget meltdown. South Carolina taxpayers are paying over $186 million a year, a cost that will grow exponentially if nothing is done. In Texas, where the state comptroller estimates illegal immigrants cost hospitals $1.3 billion in 2006, the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is considering denying cancer care to such immigrants. In California, a 2004 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform put the state's annual cost at $1.4 billion. Similar studies in Colorado and Minnesota in 2005 came up with much smaller estimates: $31 million and $17 million, respectively. At the state and local level, illegal immigrants already cost more in public services such as education and health care than they pay in taxes, the Congressional Budget Office reported recently. Illegal immigrants make up less than 5% of the cost in most states, but closer to 10% in some California counties. In 2000, counties along the Mexican border lost more than $800 million in health care services for which they were not paid; about 25% of that went to care for illegal immigrants, according to a report by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition. The costs for education, emergency medical care and incarceration of illegal aliens translate into an estimated $235 million additional tax burden for the citizens for the state of Kansas. More significant resources could be devoted to enforcement efforts and still leave taxpayers with significant net savings. Enforcement not only has the advantage of reducing the costs of illegal immigration, it also is very popular with the general public. Nonetheless, policymakers can expect strong opposition from special interest groups, especially ethnic advocacy groups and those elements of the business community that do not want to invest in labor-saving devices and techniques or pay better salaries, but instead want access to large numbers of cheap, unskilled workers. If we choose to continue to not enforce the law or to grant illegals amnesty, both the public and policymakers have to understand that there will be significant long-term costs for taxpayers. With Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma and shortly Indiana, Kansas and Missouri cracking down on illegal immigration, other states should do the same. Employers who break the law and hire illegal immigrants do not pay workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, state, federal or Social Security and Medicare taxes. Nor do they provide health insurance; instead, this burden is placed on taxpayers, forcing up insurance premiums. This situation puts employers who obey the law and pay all those expenses at a huge disadvantage. Illegal employers also encourage identity theft and the use of fraudulent documents. All states will slowly deny social services to non-citizens. If we don't, only two things can happen. Either many poor residents get a smaller piece of the pie, or politicians will raise taxes to cover everyone. Do we need higher health-care costs, higher taxes and larger, more crowded classrooms just so some businesses can exploit cheap foreign labor? Do you want your state to become a new border state? ONE LAST THOUGHT: Vote for any presidential candidate who will propose "THE FAIR TAX". Everybody, and I mean everybody, who lives in America, will pay? The wealthy who skirts the laws to the tune of $12 trillion dollars hidden in foreign refuges, will no longer be able to cheat the middle class. VOTE FOR THE "FAIR TAX."

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