The Cost of Illegals and the Prospect of a Deep Recession

Have you noticed that in the last 6 months there have been a lot of new people working in supermarkets, retail shops, landscaping and home building? If you haven’t you need to take your blinders off. Has anyone been keeping tabs on the immigration issue in our state? I’m not sure the people who are in charge of keeping track of illegal immigrants are even aware that we have been infiltrated. Is there a reason they don’t want to know? Well, I can tell you this we have seen an influx of new foreigners that are living and working in McCall, many of whom don’t speak any English. They are working for the grocery stores, ranches and the many construction projects that are going on in Valley County and Adams County. We know that the federal government has been secretly sending these illegal aliens to conservative towns and cities around our country, but do we know if Idaho has been a target for settling these aliens. Over 207,000 illegals have crossed the border in June of this year alone and we would like to know what our Governor is doing to keep Idaho from becoming a target for settling these illegals.

Senator Risch wrote about the problem with illegal border crossings in a letter on September 27, 2021, where he talked about the failed policies of the Biden administration. He said “Since the beginning of 2021, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents have encountered over 1,323,000 illegal migrants. That is enough people to create the 9th largest city in America, and surpasses the populations of Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. We have experienced more illegal border crossings than any other time in over 20 years.” These illegals are not just migrants looking for work but tattoo branded cartel members who are settling in our state and others like it. Just last week Sheriff Donahue of Canyon County described on the Kevin Miller Show how cartels tried to kidnap his then 16-year-old daughter during his time on an FBI gang task force. It is not just the influx of illegals looking for work that is the problem but the escalating drug crisis plaguing his communities. Sheriff Donahue said “There is not a day or night goes by that we’re not dealing with someone associated with the Mexican cartels, at least in our community and communities throughout the state of Idaho. … We are at war with the cartels,”

Governor Little has just put $1 million of our tax money on the line to deal with the ever-increasing fentanyl problem which kills double the 58,000 Americans that died in the Vietnam War each year. We have law enforcement officers who are living in trailers because they can’t afford housing, but we don’t see anything being done to help them out. Our question is what has Governor Little done to stop the flow of illegals from our southern border into our communities? We have heard nothing from him about this subject. You have to wonder if our Governor is doing anything to stop the flow of illegals into our state after he so whole heartedly supported the resettlement of refuges into the Twin Falls area which we wrote about in 2017 Here: https://gemstatepatriot.com/blog/governor-little-agreed-to-accept-refugees/ More recently Little has invited refugees from the Ukraine and Afghanistan to settle in Idaho which will cost taxpayers both in state and federal taxes. These are the immigrants we know about but how many illegals have entered the state without an invitation from Governor Little and who is keeping track. Is the Little administration even doing anything to enforce E-Verify? Currently we have a worker shortage in the state especially in some of our rural areas where we are seeing a large migration from our cities. Wages have been increasing at a rapid pace for Idahoans because of this shortage but they are certainly not keeping up with inflation at 9% along with the cost of housing and taxes. Illegal immigrants are filling many of these low paying jobs that Idahoans don’t want but what will happen if we have a full-blown recession, and many Idahoans lose their jobs. A bigger problem is the housing shortage where municipalities are even having trouble hiring law enforcement officers because they can’t afford the housing in our cities. These ae all good questions that need to be answered.

What is the cost of illegal immigration? It is estimated that illegal immigration will cost our state $188 million in 2022? A majority of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are receiving taxpayer funded government benefits. In essence the Biden administration has put out a welcome mat for any illegals to enter our country including those with past criminal records. According to FAIR in 2017 more than $100 billion of federal money was spent on illegals benefit programs and have increased each year since then. While federal benefits are supposed to be off limits, in practice many are not. Many undocumented workers receive subsidized housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Children receive free education and most qualify for English lessons and free school breakfast and lunch. A FAIR study in Jan. of 2021 said that in 2020 it was estimated that 14.5 million illegals are living in America at a net cost to taxpayers of nearly $134 billion a year. Does anyone know how much Idaho is spending on subsidized housing, healthcare and education for illegals in our state? I’m sure everyone would like to know since we are footing the bill.

State spending in Idaho has been increasing at a very rapid pace especially in the Medicaid Expansion budget where we have, over 100,000 on the rolls who do not qualify for these services. We also have a referendum that will be on the ballot in November that if passed could increase spending on education by over $300 million and raise taxes on corporations and anyone earning over $8,000 a year. Property taxes have been rising incessantly every year with no relief and we still have a grocery tax that is killing those Idahoans on the lower end of the income ladder as inflation breaks 9%. Currently Idaho has a surplus cushion of about 1.5 billion dollars to back up on should this recession be as bad as the one in 2009. If inflation continues to climb along with taxes and interest rates, it could put a lot of hurt on many Idahoans who are already living hand to mouth. Add into that equation the cost of illegal aliens who will drive down wages and raise the tax burden and you have the makings of some serious financial problems that could confront Idahoans in the not-too-distant future. Vote wisely in November…

“We Get the Government We Deserve”