The fiscal burden of the estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants and their 7,800 U.S.-born children in Louisiana costs the state
$224 million a year, according to a lobbyist with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Joyce Mucci, a spokeswoman for the group, spoke to members of the Republican Women on Thursday at their monthly luncheon.
Mucci criticized the deferred action for childhood arrivals.
In June, “the Secretary of Homeland
Security announced that certain people who came to the United States as
children and meet
several key guidelines may request consideration of deferred
action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and would
then be eligible for work authorization,” according to the
Department of Homeland Security’s website.
“Deferred action is a discretionary
determination to defer removal action of an individual as an act of
prosecutorial discretion.”
The website also says deferred action does not provide an individual with lawful status.
“The American people and their elected officials in Congress are the only stakeholders who can decide who can come into this
country, how many can come into this country and how the rules will be enforced,” Mucci said.
She said it’s not the Obama
administration’s place to decide immigration reform, and she accused the
administration of circumventing
Congress to implement legislation.
“Remember our immigration policy defines us; it’s who we are,” Mucci said. “It is what we will become as a society.”
Mucci said illegal immigrants are costing the state of Louisiana $109.5 million a year just in K-12 education.
“That’s a lot of money,” Mucci said. “This is money that could be saved.”
With unemployment just under 8 percent, Mucci said the illegal immigrants in the United States are in an already overcrowded
workforce.
Mucci said she understands why people from other countries want to be in the United States — that they want “better for their
families” — but she said it is not a justification for breaking the law.
Online: www.fairus.org.