Pro
B. Lindsay Lowell, PhD, Director of Policy Studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, stated in an Aug. 25, 2004 Center for Immigration Studies' panel discussion titled "The Costs of Illegal Immigration: The Impact of Illegal Aliens on the Federal Budget":
“There is a shadow side to the population that needs to be considered. It’s real. U.S. immigration policy… has, with a wink and a nod, encouraged the growth of a low-rate sector that is supplied to a large degree by unauthorized workers. And in that regard, perhaps employers and consumers benefit, but as citizens we’re abetting the growth of an underprivileged class, and as taxpayers, we are subsidizing employers… 17 percent, according to best estimate, of those in federal prisons are illegal aliens and they run up a substantial cost. This isn’t news at all to the states that seek reimbursement. A roughly similar cost is found in federal courts. And payment for the treatment of the uninsured may run as high as $2.2 billion.”
Aug. 25, 2004