Illegal Immigration Study on US Border Counties Show Shocking Statistics

April 20th, 2006

US Border Fence

A study by the University of Texas at El Paso’s Institute for Policy and Economic Development looked at US counties that border Mexico for economic and other factors.

The researchers grouped all 24 counties along the border that touch Mexico and treated this as a “51^st state”. By doing this they could compare against the other states in the United States how the bordering areas function economically.

If the border counties became a 51^st state they would rank No. 1 in federal crime. The reason for so many crimes is because of the drug traffic and immigration arrests.

San Diego County is the only affluent county in the group. If the researchers excluded San Diego County from the group, the border counties rank last in per capita income among all other states. If they included San Diego it would bring the border counties to a ranking of 39 out of 51 states.

Education is lacking in the border counties and many do not have a high school diploma. They would rank #50 out of 51 states for the amount of people above the age of 25 that have completed high school.

The border counties would rank last compare to the other states for the number of health care professionals to people living there.

This data will be presented to Congress during the debate of what to do with the borders. The reason why the government is looking at addressing the illegal immigration issue is that financially the states that are flooded with immigrants are losing hospitals, even when the population continues to grow. Other potential problems are faced with government assistance programs and education being provided. Comment on this article at our Forum

No matter the outcome illegal immigrants will be paying a price for their citizenship. It will be very likely that the cost of membership to become a legal citizen is going to be more than many will be able to afford. Unfortunately because of the fact that they are here illegally what will make them pay up when they can’t afford to?

Issues of offering government assistance with medical, housing and education are what attract the illegal immigrants. If work was readily available in their home country of Mexico and they were able to afford an acceptable living and also knowing that the handouts in the US are not available they would not be willing to risk so much to have a better life.

I believe the US government would just raise taxes to support the increase in illegal immigrants if they could. But with the war in Iraq and the potential looming crash in the US economy it is becoming more difficult for the US government to be so generous.

The US government would have not addressed the issue if they could afford to have the extra burden of illegal immigrants in the US. It is sad to have such a resource of Mexico which is a nation that is not valued by their residents enough to want to build it up to a productive nation.

If there was a way to get US companies to build factories in Mexico instead of getting goods always from China, possibly we could all win from this crisis. Everyone desires a better life with a place to call home and this is what illegal immigrants have been seeking all this time.

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