The numbers are on Trump’s side; Flake, GOP ignore them at their own peril

15,000 participants at Donald Trump's 7/11/15 rally in Phoenix, Arizona (via campaign)

By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

I’m not sure if you saw this, Save Jerseyans, but Republican Senator Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), called on the Maricopa County Republican Party to disinvite Donald Trump ahead of Saturday’s massive 15,000 supporter-strong rally in Phoenix.

“Donald Trump’s views are coarse, ill-informed and inaccurate, and they are not representative of the Republican Party, as an elected Republican official, I’m disappointed the county party would host a speaker that so damages the party’s image,” Flake told the mainstream press.

15,000 participants at Donald Trump's 7/11/15 rally in Phoenix, Arizona (via campaign)
15,000 participants at Donald Trump’s 7/11/15 rally in Phoenix, Arizona (via campaign)

Damage?

That’s rich. Want to hear the truth, Senator? You’re a fake and a fraud for having continued to put your head in the sand as your state and its citizens are subject to the repercussions of illegal immigration.

Check out the numbers.

Statewide, the illegal alien population makes up at least 46 percent of Arizona’s total foreign-born population (856,663) and 6% of the state’s total population. Nearly half (47%) of all illegal border crossings into the U.S. occur along the Arizona border with Mexico.

From 2001 to 2010, on average, 1,374 illegal aliens a day were apprehended in the Arizona border sector. DHS does not know how many illegal aliens successfully entered Arizona each day during that period. Between 1996 and 2010, the federal government estimates that the illegal alien population in Arizona increased 213%. National Park rangers in Arizona are now heavily armed, and visitors are prohibited from visiting large areas of public parklands because of drug trafficking activity.

This type of large-scale, unrestricted flow of humanity isn’t without consequences. The Arizona Department of Corrections estimates that 17% of its prison population is made up of illegal aliens; 22% of felony defendants in Maricopa County are illegal aliens. In 2012, the city of Phoenix had reported at least 93 criminal homicides and no fewer than 26,439 larceny/theft-related cases. 

In a 2005 investigation, the Government Accountability Office poured over the criminal records of over 55,000 illegal aliens nationwide and found the following: there was an average of 8 arrests and 13 offenses per individual. 45% were arrested for drug or immigration offenses; 15% for property-related offenses such as burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, or property damage; and 12% were for murder, robbery, assault, and sex-related crimes. The rest of the total included “such other offenses as traffic violations, including driving under the influence; fraud — including forgery and counterfeiting; weapons violations; and obstruction of justice.”

Another investigation, this time by the Phoenix police department, found that in 2008 there were “668 separate incidents” in the city that “met the statutory criteria for kidnapping.” Phoenix formed a police task force in 2009 to combat the rising levels of violence, and still recorded over 300 kidnapping that year. The city of Tucson formed a similar taskforce in 2008 as a response to 150 home invasions.

Of the 61,529 criminal cases initiated by federal prosecutors last fiscal year, more than 40% — or 24,746 — were filed in court districts neighboring the Mexican border. Nearly 22% (13,383) were drug related, 19.7% (12,123) were violent crimes and 10.2% (6,300) involved white-collar offenses encompassing a full range of frauds committed by business and government professionals. Those stats do NOT include the 28% unreported crime among the community itself who fear the police investigating either their own immigration status or the status of people they know and care about… or are afraid to report for feat of retaliation.

Border wall brownsvile illegal immigrationCrime inevitable victim is commerce, and Arizona’s economy has sustained a direct hit. There were an estimated 278,460 illegal aliens working in Arizona in 2011, approximately 9.3 percent of the total workforce. Unemployment in Arizona in January 2012 was 8.7 percent with 262,587 Arizonans officially unemployed.

There are ancillary costs, too. Over 10% of children enrolled in public schools (K-12) have parents who are in the U.S. illegally. Illegal aliens and their children were found to be 37 percent of the uninsured population in Arizona in 2008, and the cost of uncompensated care for illegal aliens in Arizona is $320 million annually.

The additional education, medical, and incarceration costs for Arizona due to illegal immigration are estimated to come in around $2.6 billion annually.

Why aren’t you hearing more about this crisis? Apart from the negative and distorted media coverage of Donald Trump’s statements? In truth, journalists have cut down on their reporting of crime in border areas for fear of retaliation by Mexican-based cartels and gangs.

Without Donald Trump stirring the pot, I wonder if we’d have the appropriately strong national focus on 32-year-old Kate Steinle, randomly murdered in San Francisco by a five-times-deported illegal immigrant seeking sanctuary in the city. Nor would anyone have heard of the six-times-deported illegal immigrant charged in a felony hit-and-run of an Arizona mom and her two young kids; nobody would have heard of the four-times-deported illegal immigrant in Texas who confessed to hammering his wife to death.

America is a nation of immigrants. We have recent entries from India, Korea, and a host of other countries around the globe. Why does Mexico deserve special status simply because its emigrants can walk here?

We proclaim that we are a nation of laws, and I’m sure Senator Flake would agree with that sentiment, but lax enforcement of our immigration laws have negatively impacted our nation’s quality of life for both current residents and many new entries, too. The numbers don’t lie!

For 2010, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated that the cost of illegal immigration just for New Jersey residents topped $3.48 billion:

$2.44 billion a year to educate the children of illegal aliens

$509 million a year on unreimbursed health care for illegal aliens

$336 million a year on criminal justice activities for illegal aliens

$69.7 million a year on welfare for illegal aliens

$125 million a year for additional state/local operating costs

$1,327 annual cost to each of New Jersey’s native-born headed households

Donald TrumpOverall, illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. The bulk of the costs — some $84 billion — are absorbed by state and local governments.

As I briefly mentioned above, education for the children of illegal aliens constitutes the single largest cost to taxpayers, at an annual price tag of nearly $52 billion. Nearly all of those costs are absorbed by state and local governments.

At the federal level, about one-third of outlays are matched by tax collections from illegal aliens. At the state and local level, an average of less than 5 percent of the public costs associated with illegal immigration is recouped through taxes collected from illegal aliens. Most illegal aliens do not pay income taxes. Among those who do, much of the revenues collected are refunded to the illegal aliens when they file tax returns. Many are also claiming tax credits resulting in payments from the U.S. Treasury.

Republican politicians are committing a huge error by ignoring the situation at hand and Trump for having made it impossible for them to ignore it. These folks “talk tough” about border security while at the same time voting to budget billions of dollars in government services for those in the country illegally. Paradoxical? You bet! Hypocritical, too.

You may hate him, and I’m not going to try to change your mind, Save Jerseyans, but Trump is undeniably right: our government has failed to control illegal immigration on all levels. The numbers prove it! And the GOP base knows it so a large percentage of it is responding to Donald Trump’s campaign message.

Flake and the rest of them can ignore him at their own peril.

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VIDEO: DONALD TRUMP’S JULY 11th PHOENIX RALLY REMARKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4ykVmlFAc

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Joe Sinagra
About Joe Sinagra 73 Articles
Joe is a U.S. Air Force veteran, small businessman and former candidate for the New Jersey legislature and New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. He continues to actively work for GOP causes and candidates in the Central New Jersey region.

6 Comments

  1. I find it interesting when I review voting records for my local GOP registrants, the loud mouths who don’t vote at all! I have the funny feeling that all these “supporters” will vanish, again, when the showman leaves the stage.

  2. Not surprised at Jeff Flake. He lied to the Tea Party to get elected. They and Glen Beck, in particular, helped him in a huge way. He turned on the them right away and became one of the most liberal senators in the senate. His voting record looks more like a democrat.

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