A State Border Patrol Wouldn't Be Out of Bounds
Sacramento — A legislator wants California to create its own border police force to keep out illegal immigrants. Two things are intriguing about that.
First, it's one of those paradoxes of politics that this significant expansion of state government is being advocated by a conservative Republican. Such ideologues, after all, usually push to pare back the bureaucracy.
Second, given the federal government's dereliction of duty along the U.S.-Mexican border, this seems to be the only sensible alternative for Californians frustrated with rampant illegal immigration. And many are.
"It's the first question that comes up," says the legislator, Assemblyman Ray Haynes of Murrieta, referring to citizen meetings he holds in his district that covers western Riverside and northern San Diego counties. "Folks literally have illegals running through their backyards." (He's talking big backyards, as in ranches.)
"About two years ago, things started heating up. It's now the hottest issue. The [state] budget, people can't understand. They understand illegal immigration. They see it."
Mark Baldassare, pollster for the Public Policy Institute of California, agrees that Republican voters -- the people Haynes talks to -- have become increasingly upset about illegal immigration. "It is one of their top issues," he says, "even though for Californians as a whole, it ranks in the second tier, behind the economy and schools."
But also in that second tier of issues is budget deficits. And many Californians believe these problems are all related.
Precise figures don't exist, but it's broadly estimated that California spends between $5 billion and $9 billion annually to educate, medically care for and imprison illegal immigrants.
There are roughly 2.6 million illegal immigrants living in California, according to a recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.
Although many get dinged for federal Social Security taxes, it's not logical they're paying much in state and local taxes. They may get tapped through rents for some property taxes. But with low wages, it's doubtful they owe state income tax. And their meager discretionary income means they can't be buying a lot, so the sales tax they pay is minimal.
Moreover, based on Pew research, illegal immigrants in California are sending at least $4.3 billion back to their native countries -- primarily Mexico -- rather than spending it here.
