The Democrat debates have made it plainly clear Democrats and liberals hold illegal immigrants in much higher regard than they do our own citizens.
It is bad enough that don’t really care about people like you and me, but the fact they are blatantly ignoring our own homeless, many of whom are veterans or unaccompanied children, is simply shameful.
Homelessness in America
As of January 2017, there were more than 550,000 homeless in this country. The number of homeless increased by 0.7 percent from 2016 to 2017, which is very concerning considering how much time and effort is being put into illegal immigrants by Democrats.
Of particular interest are two areas that showed the biggest increase, which was unaccompanied children and young adults. Yes, just like the problem of unaccompanied children coming across the border, we have the very same problem here in the states with children that were abandoned by their parents or felt they had no other option than to live on the streets rather than suffer through whatever their home situation was when they left. The second area is young adults. What is going on that so many of our young children and those just coming into adulthood are being forced to the streets?
Homelessness by the Numbers (2017 estimates):
- Homeless living in shelters or transitional housing – 360,867
- Homeless living in places not meant for human habitation – 192, 875
- Single homeless – 369,081
- Homeless families – 184,661
- Veterans – 40,056 (7.2 percent)
- Unaccompanied children and young adults – 40,779 (7.4 percent)
While every state has a homeless problem, a significant percentage is concentrated in only eight states:
- California – 129,972
- New York – 91, 987
- Florida – 31,030
- Texas – 25,310
- Washington – 22,304
- New Hampshire – 20,068
- Oregon – 14,476
- Pennsylvania – 13,512
Those eight states account for almost 63 percent of all the homeless in our entire country. Our four biggest southern border states, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas account for a little less than a third of the homeless in this country. Wouldn’t it make sense to get Americans off the street in those states before handing out benefits to illegal immigrants, including free health care?
What Are We Doing for the Homeless?
In the 2017 budget, there was $6 billion earmarked for the homeless and an additional $11 billion requested over the next 10 years. This funding was put in place by the Obama administration with the goal of ending homeless in this country by 2020. That, obviously, is not going to happen.
A major focus for the funding was a program to specifically get homeless families off the street and into homes with short and long-term rental assistance. Here is the full breakdown of the budget…
Now, that is not exactly pennies, but it does not compare to the money we are spending on illegal immigrants when it comes to detention facilities and entitlement programs to help them once they are in this country, not to mention the impact they have on the wages, crime, etc. If we go by this 2017 budget, our homeless are getting roughly $7.1 billion per year, but we just sent $4.6 billion to border facilities to deal with the humanitarian crisis due to the overcrowding of illegal immigrants. How much good would that money have done for our homeless children and veterans?
The Illegal Immigration Problem
One of the biggest problems with illegal immigration is we really don’t have a concrete number as to how much illegals are costing us because we simply have no idea how many of them are in the country right now.
There is also the problem of over-inflated numbers, something we are going to try to avoid here.
Right out of the gate, I can tell you that the latest numbers President Trump are pointing to are inaccurate. Trump once sent out a tweet putting $200 billion per year out there and has also more recently stated he believes the number to be around $250 billion. The numbers he was using were put out there by some right-wing sites that were inflating numbers and they are just wrong. The real numbers are bad enough, so we don’t need to exaggerate them for effect.
For the sake of argument, I am going to purposely lowball the numbers, which will still prove just how out of whack the entire system already is. Keep in mind, these numbers will skyrocket if Democrats win in 2020 and give illegals even more benefits, including the proposed free health care and free college educations.
Immigration Cost Studies
In 2017, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) conducted a study to try to put an actual price tag on the cost of immigration in this country today. It was a reasonably fair assessment, but they probably overstated the costs just a bit. This is a conservative organization, so for the sake of argument and to pacify the left, let’s agree they were on the high end of their assessment with their estimated cost of illegal immigrants at almost $116 billion per year. (For the record, I believe this report to be the most accurate and is far likelier representative of the costs of illegal immigration in the United States today.)
The Heritage Foundation, which also identifies on the conservative side of the aisle, estimated the costs of illegal immigration to be about $54 billion a year in 2013. Taking into account the influx in illegals and rising costs, it is probably a safe estimate that number would be around $70 billion today, which is still significantly less than what FAIR assessed the costs to be.
There are several studies that have been put out by left-leaning organizations that predictably say the country is actually getting a small net contribution with illegal immigration. Those numbers factor in estimated consumer numbers to the study while lowballing public assistance (the same numbers right-leaning studies are probably overestimating on). The figures are so ridiculously tainted, they are not even worthwhile discussing here.
In the essence of fairness, let’s split it down the middle and roughly estimate that illegal immigration is costing the country about $40 billion per year (and that number is undoubtedly undercutting the actual numbers).
As stated above, if Democrats get into office, those numbers are going to climb dramatically because every illegal in this country right now is going to put their hand out for the freebies. Most estimates agree there are about 11 million illegals in this country, but we can probably all agree that number will become significantly higher once the threat of deportation is taken off the table and they can come out of the shadows (which would actually make the numbers from the FAIR report far more accurate).
Think of the strain this is going to put on our economy as well as how many of the current benefits slated for our homeless are going to suddenly get gobbled up by these illegals. Who do you think is going to get the housing assistance first? Who is going to get medical assistance first? And, of course, who is going to foot the bill?
To be realistic, there are some homeless that are content to live their lives where they are. They became homeless to escape their reality and they have absolutely no intention of ever going back to it. However, for those that need and want help, we have to do a better job of picking these Americans up and helping them get back on their feet before we open up the floodgates for illegals and give them all a box of goodies for breaking the law to get into this country.
We have homeless veterans suffering from PTSD that are living on the street because they did not get the help they needed from the VA. Many of them are on the street simply because they do not trust themselves to be around their family or friends. These individuals are heroes and they can still be helped, we just need to stick our hand out and offer them a little support.
As far as homeless children go, there is simply no excuse. Far too many of these children are being used by drug dealers and pimps. They may have left an abusive home or some other situation, but the life they are leading now is far worse. We need to send armies of people into the streets to find out what they need and give it to them, period. If they need counseling, they get it. If they need a shoulder to cry on, we provide it, but we simply cannot ignore the more than 40,000 children and young adults that are living on our streets. We have to get them fed, housed, medically taken care of, counseled, and give them a nudge down a path that offers them success rather than the horrific path they are headed down now.
These are the issues our presidential candidates need to be confronted with when they come into your town for a Town Hall, a debate, or for a rally. We need to get in their faces just as their supporters get in our faces. We need to put them on a spot to defend their illegal immigrant stance with hard facts about the plight of our own citizens and make them defend the indefensible. If we do that, we will expose them and once we expose them, we can kick them out of office and put people in their place that will put Americans first!
Sources: Pew Research / New York Times / U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness / National Alliance to End Homelessness / FAIR / NBC News / Cost for Immigration Studies / AP News
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