Maryland Community Newspapers Online
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Maryland Community Newspapers Online
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Illegal immigration takes away more benefits than it bringsUnless you are 100 percent Native American, all of the people living in the United States are immigrants. If Mr. [Bill] Hanna would check any world map, he would find that to emigrate from Ireland and Russia to the U.S., his elders could not have walked across their borders and walked in to the U.S. [‘‘Immigration brings benefits for newcomers and communities,” Letters to the Editor, Feb. 28]. They had a process that they had to go through. Once their feet landed on the shores of America, the paperwork started. Mr. Hanna’s underlying theme is that without immigration, any kind of immigration, the United States would become stagnant. We do need immigration, but it must be done legally. The United States allows over 1 million legal immigrants into the country each year. Once again, they have gone through the process of coming here, doing the paperwork and putting forth an incredible effort to be part of America. The federal government estimates there are over 10 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. today, and the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that in 2005, there [were] between 225,000 and 275,000 illegal [immigrants] living right here in Maryland. The first benefit that illegal [immigrants] take away is from our schools. The General Accounting Office estimates that in 2005, it cost American taxpayers over $7,000 per illegal [immigrants] to educate from kindergarten to 12th grade. In Maryland, there is legislation that will be voted on to allow illegal [immigrants] to receive in-state tuition rates. That is a reduction of almost $7,000 per semester per student. With the state of Maryland facing a deficit, budget cuts and services being curtailed to legal citizens, why should law-abiding taxpayers foot the bill for illegal [immigrants] to go to college? Stealing educational money from legal citizens to pay for illegal ones is not the answer. The native born and legal immigrant work force is also being adversely affected by illegal immigration. The statement in Mr. Hanna’s commentary, ‘‘given them employment because we had jobs that needed to be filled,” implies that illegal [immigrants] had to fill them because no one else would. This is not true. Even in the best of economic times, there has been unemployment. What is true is that there is a large pool of cheap labor. America’s health care system is under a financial burden that is shutting down hospitals around the country. The law says that if you show up to an emergency room, you have to be treated. Illegal immigration has a huge part of the responsibility for this. Good schools, good paying jobs and a health-care system second to none are just three of the things illegal immigration robs from us as citizens. It is time that all legal citizens stand up and let our government officials know that we have had enough of illegal immigration. We want them to change business as usual. If not, maybe it is time to change our government. Jim DeBerry, Hyattsville
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