Is the Flooding of Immigrants Good or Bad?

Thousands of people are leaving Central America to migrate in the masses to the United States to escape their country from poverty, violence, and seeking to reunite with family that is in the United States. According to an article published on April 1, 2019 in the New York Times it states that American officials say about 76,000 migrants without authorization were intercepted, or surrendered, along the southwest border in February — a 31 percent increase over January’s number. Interdictions of undocumented immigrants, most of them from Central America, were on pace to surpass 100,000 last month. With this amount of migrants coming to the United States, something needs to be done to stop the mass flow of people coming into the United States.
With this massive amount of people coming to the United States where are they going to be housed? The state of California has the highest level of homeless people of any state —134,000 — in 2017, according to the last annual estimate by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A quarter of the nation’s homeless live in the Golden State, the report found. According to Bakersfield Census of the homeless in 2018, –885 people were homeless, an increase of nine percent from the previous year. If Bakersfield and the state of California have a significant homeless problem, how does the state take care of an additional number of people coming through the boarders? The state cannot handle an influx of people. We would see more people on the streets and the already packed shelters cannot take any more.
Another reason why something needs to be done is that experts say this is a growing cost to taxpayers from the surge of Central American families and unaccompanied minors. In a recent article by Fox News, it adds that, “We’re talking about billions of dollars in taxpayer benefits over the next few years,” said Dan Stein, director of the right-leaning think tank, Federation for American Immigration Reform. “The payout for the taxpayer is enormous and income to the Treasury is miniscule.” In theory federal benefits are supposed to be off limits to illegal immigrants but they are not. According to an article published on April 23, 2019 Fox News states that 25,000 undocumented immigrants receive subsided housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Their children also receive free breakfast and lunch from schools. According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it found that a federal-state immigrant insurance program cost $2 billion a year in emergency treatment, not including the $1.24 billion in infant delivery expenses. On top of those numbers that taxpayers are footing is that the fact that families with U.S. -born children are able to receive food stamps. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 31% of such families use the SNAP program and more than 50% of Central American families in the U.S. use at least one welfare program. Yes, some of these immigrants after a while attempt to find jobs but what happens to them in the meantime. Recognizing that many illegal workers fill jobs communities need, 26 states offer them state-funded benefits. Eleven states offer free or subsidized medical and hospital care. California offers food stamps, legal services and benefits for those over 65 or disabled. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently asked for an extra $50 million from lawmakers to serve the state’s illegal immigrant population. If there was not such a surge of immigrants flowing from Central America then we should be willing to look at their cases. Since this is not the case, the United States people should not have to pay for the influx of immigrants coming. The government needs to do something know!