L.A.County’s $48 Million Monthly Anchor Baby Tab
Taxpayers in the nation¹s most populous county dished out nearly $50
million in a single month to cover only the welfare costs of illegal
immigrants, representing a whopping $10 million increase over the same
one-month period two years ago.
In June 2009 alone Los Angeles County spent $48 million ($26 million in
food stamps and $22 million in welfare) to provide just two of numerous
free public services to the children of illegal aliens, which will
translate into an annual tab of nearly $600 million for the
cash-strapped county.
The figure doesn¹t even include the exorbitant cost of educating,
medically treating or incarcerating illegal aliens in the sprawling
county of about 10 million residents. Los Angeles County annually spends
more than $1 billion for those combined services, including $400 million
for healthcare and $350 million for public safety.
The recent single-month welfare figure was obtained from the county¹s
Department of Social Services and made public by a county supervisor
(Michael Antonovich) who assures illegal immigration continues to have a
³catastrophic impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers.² The veteran
lawmaker points out that 24% of the county¹s total allotment of welfare
and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal
aliens.
A former fifth-grade history teacher who has served on the county¹s
board for nearly three decades, Antonovich has repeatedly come under
fire for publicizing statistics that confirm the devastation illegal
immigration has had on the region. Antonovich represents a portion of
the county that is roughly twice the size of Rhode Island and has about
2 million residents.
Numerous other reports have documented the enormous cost of illegal
immigration on a national level. Just last year a renowned economist,
who has thoroughly researched the impact of illegal immigration,
published a book breaking down the country¹s $346 billion annual cost to
educate, jail, medically treat and incarcerate illegal aliens throughout
the U.S.