Kiron, IA - U.S. Congressman Steve King assailed the re-warmed amnesty plan announced yesterday by President Bush in Yuma, Arizona.  The President’s plan claims to avoid amnesty while simultaneously offering rewards to the same illegal immigrants who have broken the law. “The President cannot redefine amnesty for the convenience of his own policy initiative.  The President’s proposal pardons immigration law-breakers and rewards them with the objective of their crimes.  That’s amnesty and amnesty ultimately destroys the Rule of Law,”  King stated.

The President’s announcement of a new White House immigration plan comes in the wake of a new report highlighting the costs of illegal immigration to American taxpayers.  In a thorough new study, The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector found that a household headed by a high school dropout (which includes the vast majority of illegal immigrant households) costs American taxpayers more than $32,000 in federal, state and local benefits, while contributing only about $9,000 in taxes.  Such a household represents a net tax burden of $22,449 each year.  Shockingly, the net cost to the American taxpayer over the lifetime of the household is $1.1 million.  “Would any of us buy shares in a company that we knew would produce a loss of a million dollars a share?” asked King.  “Cheap labor is not cheap at the cost of over a million dollars per head of household.”

“This proposal dramatically expands a government subsidized “servant-class” at the expense of the middle-class.  Amnesty aside, the President has proposed that American taxpayers foot the bill for a giant expansion of social program spending at all levels of government,” explained King. 

In addition, the President’s plan does not address issues of enforcement such as a low 2% prosecution rate from 2001 to 2005 for immigration law-breakers who are caught, or the low rate of capture for illegal border crossers.  Border Patrol Agent Union Chief, T.J. Bonner confirms the low rate of capture, “For every person we catch [crossing the border illegally], two or three get by us.”

King concludes, “While I recognize that President Bush earnestly seeks to lead the country in the right direction, I challenge his immigration proposal entirely.  I am for expanding an ever more prosperous middle-class.  I’m for the working family, and the hardworking undereducated Americans who can no longer aspire to work their way into the middle-class because they have been priced out of the market by illegal labor.  I am opposed to amnesty, and I am for the Rule of Law,” stated King.

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