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California: Social Policy Issues

Welfare and Assistance Issues

Emergency-room crowding has been a national problem for years, but now it's hit home. Struggling with staffing shortages, declining reimbursement rates from insurance companies and the government, rising operating costs, and a disproportionately large number of uninsured patients, the county's [Santa Cruz] two emergency rooms are approaching a crisis.
The county's two hospitals now close their doors regularly to new emergency patients, because the hospitals get too crowded to take in more. When the emergency rooms are open, wait times are lengthy - less urgent patients often have to wait as long as 10 hours on weekend nights to see a doctor.
Most of California's emergency departments operate at a loss. A study by the California Medical Association found 82 percent of the state's 347 emergency rooms lost money in 2000. Altogether, ERs lost $325 million, while emergency physicians lost another $110 million providing uncompensated care.
Farmworkers and people working in the tourism, service or retail industries - which often don't provide benefits - make up the bulk of the county's uninsured.
(Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 17, 2002)

An investigation of California's Medi-Cal program to provide medical services to 5 million poor and disabled Californians has found it rife with fraud. The extent of phony charges to the system may be higher than one billion dollars annually. The investigation indicates that the schemes were often in immigrant communities. According to John Wang, a criminal justice professor at Cal-State in Long Beach, who is studying Medi-Cal fraud in Asian communities, "To an immigrant, if there is no official reaction or sanction or punishment, then they consider it legal or implied legal because there is nobody stopping them."
(San Diego Union Tribune, December 2, 1999)

For fiscal year '97-'98, the state spent $84 million on prenatal care for the same estimated 70,000 illegal alien women. The issue of whether California is required by federal law to provide those services as emergency medical and public health expenditures is due to come to trial in November 1998.
(Source: Migration News, July 7, 1998)

The 1994 Proposition 187 effort to end taxpayer-financed programs for illegal aliens, adopted by 59 percent of the California electorate, is yet to be implemented. It was immediately challenged in a federal court after adoption and was enjoined. On March 18, 1998 -- three-and-a-half years later -- the federal judge (Mariana Pfaelzer) finally issued a ruling striking down Proposition 187 as unconstitutional on the basis that state law would have acted in areas of federal jurisdiction. The judges' interpretation will be appealed to the circuit court according to Gov. Pete Wilson. The state will argue that California taxpayers were not trying to regulate immigration, only how their tax dollars would be spent.
(Source: Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1998)

The state Housing and Community Development department has prepared new screening rules based on the welfare reform legislation adopted by Congress in 1996 that would ban illegal aliens from public housing programs. The HCD estimates that as many as 5 percent of 25,000 housing units could be affected. Advocates for the poor say the share could be much higher. Gov. Wilson has described the move as fulfilling the will of the people and removing benefits that serve as a magnet for illegal aliens. As background, state authorities pointed out that there is a waiting list of one-to-two years for some of the rental assistance programs.
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 17, 1997)

Data from the state Department of Health Services for 1995 indicate that Mexican-born women gave birth to 57% of 253,726 births to Hispanic women. That means that Mexican-born women in the country both legally and illegally accounted for 26.2% of California's total 253,726 births.

California's Medi-Cal program has paid for prenatal care for illegal immigrants since 1988. The state spent $83.7 million in the 1996-97 fiscal year to provide care for about 70,000 illegal alien women. The Wilson administration has attempted to end such payments following the congressional welfare reform in 1996, but on Dec. 19 the new rules were barred by a county judge who ruled that the action had to await federal instructions on how illegal aliens were supposed to be identified.
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 20, 1997)

California in 1994 was estimated to be home for almost 870,000 Chinese (of a U.S. total of more than 1.8 million). Nearly 400,000 live in Southern California. A 1997 poll of the Southland Chinese found that 87% said they were immigrants. They generally reported high levels of education and median family incomes higher than the national average. But the results also showed a growing gap between the affluent and poorer immigrants. Among those surveyed, one- fifth said someone in their family received government assistance.
(Source: Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1997)

In San Francisco, authorities estimate there are 10,500 immigrants who will become ineligible for SSI benefits if they don't naturalize. One-tenth are under age 50, one-tenth are between 50 and 65, and the remaining four-fifths are over age 65. A majority are Chinese (52%). Others are Latinos (15%), Filipinos (13%), Vietnamese (6%), Korean (3%) and Russian (2%).
(Source: World Journal, May 27, 1997)

The partial restoration of SSI benefits agreed to in May -- for disabled, but not elderly immigrants--is projected to restore benefits for 106,000 recipients in California, 40% of the total nationwide, but still leave about 110,000 elderly in the state subject to the cut-off.
(Source: The Sacramento Bee, May 3, 1997)

State officials estimate that California hosts about 200,000 immigrants who stand to lose their SSI benefits. That is about two-fifths of the national total in that situation.
(Source: San Francisco Examiner, April 22, 1997)

State authorities estimate that two-thirds of elderly immigrants receiving SSI have been in the United States for fewer than 15 years. (These are immigrants who are likely to have been sponsored for immigration by their earlier immigrating children and who are not likely to qualify for continuing SSI on the basis of 10 years of contributions into the Social Security system.)
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1997)

California counties are holding hearings to determine whether to begin requiring proof of legal US residence before providing services at tax-funded county clinics. If the counties turn away illegal aliens, they will have to get medical services either in hospital emergency rooms or in private "free clinics." In Sacramento county, for example, an estimated 630 unauthorized aliens received medical care at county clinics in 1995, at an estimated cost of $300,000. All persons were made eligible for services at county hospitals in 1982.
(Source: Rural Migration News, January 1997)

Non-naturalized immigrants in California receiving food stamps, and subject to the cut-off as a result of the welfare reform bill, are estimated at 467,000 out of a total of 3.2 million beneficiaries. That is about 15%. This is higher than their share of the population because the 15% non-naturalized foreign born in the 1990 Census included many illegal aliens who are not eligible for food stamps, and because California has been a target of the stepped-up naturalization campaign by the INS.
(Source: Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1996)

California made plans in November 1996 to make illegal aliens ineligible for benefits funded by state taxes after December 1, 1996, including prenatal care for pregnant women. Among the programs whose clients may be asked about their immigration status are those for early breast-cancer detection; child-abuse prevention; foster care; abortion and family planning services; and, assistance for the deaf and disabled.

Health care costs in California have continued to soar as people flood the state to take advantage of Medi-Cal. It is estimated that the state paid $1 billion in emergency and pregnancy-related services for undocumented aliens in 1993. This figure is up almost 43% from the $700 million paid in 1992.
(Source: State Department of Health Services)

Attempted Medi-Cal fraud in San Diego and Imperial Counties has increased tenfold and state officials have uncovered 2,663 cases which could have cost taxpayers $6.5 million. However, that number is far from the true total of fraud cases.
(Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/11/93)

California will cut welfare payments for 2.7 million recipients on January 1, 1997, by 4.9% to $565 for a family of three in urban areas and by 9.8% to $538 for a family of three in 41 rural counties. Welfare checks written in December 1996 count against the maximum two years and then work, and maximum five years of lifetime assistance limits.

Job Competition from Immigration

According to Paul Harrington, a reseacher at Northeastern University, the huge influx of low-skilled foreign workers into Southern California has creaded heated competition for entry-level employment. "You've got this tremendous overcrowding at the bottom of the labor market. That's one of the reasons your kids are having a tougher time getting jobs," he was quoted as saying in the April 3, 2002 Los Angeles Times.

Losers in this competion most often are second generation Hispanic youths looking for their first full-time job. According to Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Lablor Market Studies also at Northeastern, his reaserch shows that in the late 1990s, only 37 percent of California teens aged 16-19 were employed, compared with 52 percent nationally. In Los Angeles County, only 29 percent of youths in that age bracket were employed.

Education Issues

According to Kenji Hakuta a Stanford education professor:
"It's a sad situation for schools right now. We've got extremely scarce resources. We have people fighting over bread crumbs. And we have groups with equally strong and important needs for which society isn't willing to provide. When the stakes are like this, the fight only gets more and more vicious."
State funding for limited-English students has steadily increased to $319 million today from $108 million in 1986. Funding for low-income students [often blacks] decreased to $64 million from $93 million while the number of low-income students grew to 1.9 million from 1 million. The number of students who primarily speak a language other than English went to 1.3 million from 514,000. Another $50 million in federal funding went directly to California's bilingual education programs. The prospect is for tensions over educational resource allocations between immigrants and poor native-English speakers to get much worse as the Latino student population rises to 50% of total student enrollment by 2005 (compared to today's 39%).
(Source: San Francisco Examiner, "Competing needs of Latino, black students put pressure on scarce funds," May 14, 1997 also see S.F. Chronicle July 18, 1997)

From 1990 to 1996 the share of California public school students considered "limited English Proficient (LEP)," jumped to nearly 25% from just over 18%. The share of students 'graduating' out of LEP instruction each year into regular courses dropped from 10.5% in 1986 to 6.5% in 1996. This situation is expected to get worse. What is proposed to deal with this trend? California plans to offer the national math test in Spanish in 1999 for eighth-graders. "We may need to give increased time for students who lack English skills to take tests. We will need to modify tests by removing the more difficult vocabulary, and resort to more qualitative assessment by making observations of kids and looking at portfolios," according to Stanford professor Hakuta. The question is, will this prepare them for college? According to Delia Pompa, U.S. Dept. of Education bilingual education director, "What we must keep in mind is that if the kids don't graduate and go to college we'll have a population ill-prepared to enter the work world and conduct themselves as responsible citizens."
(Source: San Francisco Examiner, "21st-century test for schools: Millions of students with limited English," May 15, 1997)

The new California law calling for English-only student testing is stirring up controversy. In Los Angeles Unified School District, Supt. Ruben Zacarias has called for defiance of the law, and in San Francisco, a school district spokeswoman termed the requirement "unfair." She noted that 32% of the 66,000 students in K-12 classes do not speak English as their primary language. (Source: Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1998)

Limited English Proficiency Students

Data are not available nationally on immigrant students (either legally or illegally resident in the United States) who are enrolled in primary and secondary schools (K-12). However, many of these students are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency/English Language Learning (LEP/ELL) instruction programs. Many may be U.S.-born, but the majority of these students may be assumed to be either immigrants or the children of immigrants, with the exception being areas with native Americans who speak a native language other than English.

In California, overall enrollment in 2002 (6,247,889) was 8.7 percent above enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (1,512,655 - 24.2% of all enrollment) was 31.3 percent higher than a decade earlier.

Data on enrollment in LEP/ELL programs are collected by the federal government from school systems that receive Title VII funds for these special instruction programs. The data on LEP/ELL enrollment are understated because data from private schools that do not apply for Title VII assistance are sketchy.

Crime

According to a Hollywood Division citizen advisory board member, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that there are 10,000 illegal alien members of the 18th Street gang in Los Angeles. That information was used to support a request to the Police Commission for more active efforts to identify illegal aliens for deportation. The Commission rejected the proposal on the basis that enough was being done by having 4 INS officers assigned full time to the county jail to screen prisoners.
(Source: LatinoLink News Services June 24, 1997)

California and its regional governments spend more than $500 million a year to arrest and imprison illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes. Total legal costs of crimes committed in California by people who are not legal U.S. residents is estimated to be between $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year.
(Source: "The Criminal Alien," a report by the California Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations)

Deportable aliens comprise 11% of the Los Angeles County jail population costing the county an estimated $75 million a year.
(Source: "Impact of Repeat Arrests on Deportable Criminal Aliens in Los Angeles County")

California sued the federal government in March 1996 to make up the difference between the $252 million it received last year in compensation for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens and the $400 million it estimates that it spends. The suit was denied by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on June 3, 1997. The court ruled, in effect, that Atty. Gen. Reno could not reimburse more than the amount appropriated for that purpose by Congress. California authorities said that there will be about 20,000 incarcerated criminal aliens who are illegally in the United States in jail in California by mid-summer.
(Source: San Diego Union Tribune, June 4, 1997)

Anaheim was the focus of an in-depth article "...Activists Find Their Values And Tolerance Can Conflict." The focus was on city decay and local activism to try to turn the problem around. Much of the problem-causing demographic change was identified as due to the influx of immigrants, often working in services to the Disneyland industry. The side effects of large scale immigrant settlement, the largest group being from Mexico, include apartment overcrowding, school overcrowding, rising crime rates, and falling property values. In addition the role of English instruction in the schools has engendered strong emotions.
(Source: Wall Street Journal, March 5, 1998)

The San Diego sheriff's department is seeking help from the Latino community in Visa to help fight an influx of brothels (over 20) in the north county city. According to the local authorities more than 200 prostitutes and customers have been arrested and deported to Mexico over the past year. The brothels have been found to often be run by illegal aliens.
(Source: dailynews (Yahoo.com), August 18, 1998)

Narcotics agents apprehended six Mexican illegal aliens who were cultivating the largest marijuana plant found in California this year about three miles southwest of San Andreas in Calaveras County. The narcotics agents, who had been maintaining surveillance for more than a month, destroyed 11,643 marijuana plants.
(Source: Modesto Bee, August 28, 1998)

Carrying Capacity

"Despite the ravings of some racist fanatics, immigration is not a racial problem; it is a population problem. It is projected to be a principal cause of U.S. population growth. Is it "immigrant bashing" or simply common foresight to ask what would be required for a doubled or tripled or quadrupled population? What about jobs, schools, parks, housing, air quality, open space, farmland and food production, transportation and infrastructure of all kinds?... In California the most conspicuous resource in short supply is water. In drought years, this state does not have enough available water for the present population at current rates of use."Harold Gilliam, San Francisco Examiner, June 26, 1998

The Water Constraint
A book by former Illinois Senator Paul Simon, now head of the Southern Illinois Univ. Public Policy Institute, focuses on the looming shortage of potable water as population expands. The book, "Tapped Out," describes water resource shortages around the world and in the United States. California is pinpointed as one of the trouble areas. Simon writes: "Every official California water plan projects a huge gap between need and supply. California's population will grow from 31 million today to somewhere between 48 million and 60 million in less than 40 years. Symbolic of California's problems is the story of Owens Lake. Early in this century, Los Angeles-area water authorities understood that they'd face problems as the population grew, so they purchased the third-largest body of water in the state, Owens Lake. Today it is called Owens Dry Lake, because L.A. has sucked it dry." (Source: Parade Magazine, August 23, 1998)

According to a new study on the population trend on the U.S.-Mexico border by the Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, the border population could double by 2020. "These population trends portend serious problems for border communities in terms of infrastructure deficits, availability of water and energy, and negative environmental impacts on water, air and natural resources," according to the report. The Center, based in San Diego, notes that already sewage from overloaded Mexican systems spills across the borders occasionally, and that the most serious looming problem may be water shortages.
(Source: AP, San Diego, May 10, 1999)

Ethnic Change and Immigration

According to the California Dept. of Finance (Change by Race, 1990-96), immigration to the state since 1990 has resulted in a net increase of 188,000 new Hispanic residents and 346,000 Asian and Pacific Island residents. From 1992-96 the state has experienced a net loss of 401,000 white residents. This has led to an increase in Hispanic (26% to 29%) and Asian (9% to 11%) population shares, while the white share declined (from 57% to 53%) and the share of black residents stayed the same (7%).

Migrant Foreign Agricultural Workers

Governor Pete Wilson told the annual meeting of the California Farm Bureau Federation in December 1996 that "there is no inconsistency whatever between strict enforcement of our immigration laws to secure our borders against illegal immigration and a program that lets legal guest workers provide needed harvest labor when...the domestic labor force proves inadequate to need."

The California Farm Bureau Federation took credit for trying to include a guest worker program in the 1996 immigration reform legislation and for requiring GAO to study the H-2A program when the guest worker program was rejected by the House.
(Source: Rural Migration News, January 1997)

Urban Institute Study of Immigration and Rural California

Writing in the Summer 1998 issue of Immigration Review, Dr. Monica Heppel, Research Director of the Inter-American Institute on Migration and Labor, reviewed a 1997 Urban Institute (UI) study on Povety Amid Prosperity: Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural California. The research study was authored by agricultural-economist Philip Martin and UI immigration researcher Michael Fix. Heppel credits Martin and Fix with clearly demonstrating that today's increased agricultural employment in rural California does not equate with lower poverty levels, but rather the reverse -- higher agricultural sector employment coincides with higher levels of unemployment and poverty. She cites the study's observation that "Traditionally, rural poverty has been combined with cyclical crises that force farms into a downward spiral from which they rarely rebound....In California today, rural poverty occurs in an environment of agricultural prosperity, in the context of a growth industry." This context, she suggests, means that traditional programs designed to alleviate rural poverty need to be rethought.

RAND 1998 Study of Immigration and California's Economy

The Rand Corporation issued a report in 1998 entitled Immigration in a Changing Economy: California's Experience. The authors were immigration researchers Kevin McCarthy and George Vernez. In general they found both positive and negative economic effects from the state's high levels of both legal and illegal immigration.

The publication was reviewed by Center for Immigration Studies researcher Steven Camarota in the Summer issue of Immigration Review. Among the studies highlights identified by Camarota are the fact that even though immigrants should be credited with creating many new jobs, "...few of these jobs went to natives; overall, in fact, immigration reduces job opportunities for natives." Other findings were that immigrant settlement in California has both significantly lowered wages for high school dropouts and caused unemployment and underemployment. The skills of new immigrants are increasingly out of step with the needs of the state's economy. Overall, immigrants pay less in taxes than they consume in public services, although this varies considerably depending on the immigration category. Vernez and McCarthy conclude that much of the negative effects of current immigration could be alleviated by some changes that would pare immigration back from the current level (near one million per year) to between 300,000 to 800,000 per year.

Writing in the same issue of Immigration Review, demographer Meredith Burke explores the future implications of today's California immigrants. Because Mexican-born women accounted for about one-quarter of all births in the state in 1990, and there is a strong correlation between the educational attainment of parents and children, she speculates that the trend will be large pockets of low-productivity workers and an exacerbation of current income inequalities and increased inter-ethnic strife.

Costs of Immigration

California is expending close to $600 million a year on jailing aliens, according to state officials. This expense has been partially offset by a federal reimbursement program that began in 1994. The total of the federal assistance has been about $500 million per year, and California received $183 million in fiscal 1998. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) says the expense picked up by California taxpayers is "really, in a way, an unfunded mandate." The cost borne by California taxpayers will be much greater next year if present efforts succeed in Congress to cut the appropriation back to $100 million. California, under that funding, would receive only about $31 million in compensation.
(Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, June 11, 1999)

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California: Illegal Aliens

FAIR Estimate 

FAIR’s estimate of the state’s illegal alien population as of 2007 is about 3,470,000  persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS ESTIMATE

The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated in February 2003 that the resident illegal alien population of California was 2,209,000 as of January 2000. That compared with its estimate of 2,000,000 illegal alien residents in October 1996. That was an increase by nearly 40 percent from its October 1992 estimate of 1,441,000 illegal aliens. The most recent estimate by DHS put the illegal alien population in the state at  2,830,000 in 2006.

The 2003 INS estimate puts the average rate in increase in the illegal alien population in California from 1990 to 2000 at 73,200 aliens per year. INS data listed in 1991 the number of applicants from California for the amnesty for illegal aliens adopted in 1986 as 1,624,070 (956,172 long-term illegal residents and 667,898 agricultural workers.

The Migration Policy Institute estimated in May 2002 that California's illegal alien population in 2000 was 2.3 million. In November 2006, DHS updated the estimate of the state’s illegal alien population to 2,770,000.

OTHER ESTIMATES

The Migration Policy Institute estimated in May 2002 that California's illegal alien population in 2000 was 2.3 million.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated in March 2005 that the illegal alien population in California was 2.5-2.75 million.

INCARCERATION COSTS

California has received partial compensation under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) that was established in 1994 to compensate the states and local jurisdictions for incarceration of "undocumented," aliens who are serving time for a felony conviction or at least two misdemeanors.

The recent SCAAP amounts that California has received were:

The amount of SCAAP awards has been declining in both total distributions and even more as a share of the state’s expenses. In FY’99 the state received 38.6% of its costs. SCAAP data indicate that California's illegal alien inmate population had increased by 31 percent from the 30,785 inmate years in FY'99 to 40,225 inmate years in FY'02, while compensation declined by seven percent.

In our study on ““The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians”, we estimated the uncompensated incarceration cost in 2004 at $1.5 billion.

MEDICAL COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals with emergency rooms are required to treat and stabilize patients with emergency medical needs regardless whether or not they are in the country legally or whether they are able to pay for the treatment. Congress in 2003 enacted an appropriation of $250 million per year (for 4 years) to help offset some of the costs due to use of this service by illegal aliens. This amount has been allocated among the states based upon estimates of the illegal alien population and data on the apprehension of illegal aliens in each state. This amount compensates only a fraction of the medical outlays. For California, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $72,341,572.

In our study on “The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians”, we estimated the uncompensated medical cost in 2004 at $1.5 billion.

EDUCATIONAL COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Because states are required to educate illegal alien students through secondary school under the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision, taxpayers are saddled with this burden. In addition, advocates for illegal immigrants have mounted a campaign in the state legislatures to allow illegal aliens to receive taxpayer supported post-secondary education at in-state tuition rates.

In our study on “The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians”, we estimated the annual cost of educating illegal alien students at more than $3.2 billion and the cost of educating their siblings who were born in the United States at an additional more than $4.5 billion.  

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California: Poll Data

Rasmussen, July 22, 2009, poll of 500 likely voters in California

• 64% say illegal aliens put a “significant strain” on the state budget, while 25% say that they do not.
• 65% to 23% believe that the availability taxpayer-funded programs draw illegal aliens to California.
• 47% support cutting off welfare benefits to the children of illegal aliens, and 39% oppose it.

An Orange County Register (CA) reader’s poll published on June 19, 2009 found that of 1,631 respondents 78% opposed the provisions of the DREAM Act.

Question: "Do you think college students who are in the country illegally should be given a path to residency, protected from deportation and eligible for student loans and federal work study programs?

A Field Poll by the Field Research Corporation of 570 registered California voters taken from March 20-31, 2007 found that:

• 83% support the legalization of illegal immigrants who are employed and have resided in the United States for “a number of years,” and a lower share (67%) agree to a temporary worker program for illegal immigrants.
• 77% believe that illegal immigration is either a “very serious problem” (48%) or a “somewhat serious problem” (28%).
• 71% agree with strengthening border patrols.
• 63% support stiffer penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants.
• 53% favor deporting illegal immigrants.

A Field Poll released March 4, 2005 with a +/- 4.1%age point margin of error found:

“A new bill currently in the U.S. Congress would effectively block states like California from providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, by requiring all states to verify that applicants for driver’s licenses are American citizens or living in the country legally.”

The results were that 59% favored this action (vs. 38% opposed). Republicans supported by 78%-19%, Non-partisans by 57%-42%, and Democrats by 53%-41%. Latinos opposed by 53%-45%.

A question also probed the issue of California adopting a measure to allow driver’s licenses for “undocumented immigrants.” The similar results were opposition by 62%-35%. However opinions were nearly equal on whether the state should issue a different non-ID license to the illegal aliens.

• 65% said that illegal immigrants should not be eligible for services and benefits provided by state and local governments, except for emergency services. 53% said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who opposes granting government benefits and services to illegal immigrants. 73% said that illegal immigrants should not be eligible for in-state tuition at state universities, and 68% opposed granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. (Luntz Research, October 2003)

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California: Immigration Impact

Population Change

¹ California’s population increased by 14.3 percent between 1990 and 2000, and by 7.2 percent between 2000 and 2006, bringing California’s total population to approximately 36.5 million.

In 2006 California ranked third in population gain in the United States. ²

Approximately 55 percent of the total population increase between 2000 and 2006 in California was directly attributable to immigrants.

FAIR estimates the illegal alien population in 2005 at 2,778,000, which ranks 1st in the U.S. for the FAIR estimate. This number is 25% above the U.S. government estimate of 2,209,000 in 2000, and 88% above the 1990 estimate of 1,476,000.

According to an estimate of the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2005 there were an estimated 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 illegal aliens living in California This estimate ranks 1^st among illegal alien populations in the United States for the PEW estimate. ³

FAIR estimates in 2004 that the taxpayers of California spent $7728.5 million per year on illegal aliens and their children in public schools.⁴

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Traffic: 60% of California's major urban roads are congested, and 71% of California's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Vehicle travel on California's highways increased 25% from 1990 to 2003. The state has transferred $3.1 billion from the transportation trust fund to the general fund. Driving on roads in need of repair costs California motorists $12.6 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs --- $554 per motorist. ⁶

Congestion in the Bakersfield area costs commuters $130 per person per year in excess fuel and lost time, $270 per person in Freshno,$1,668 per person in Los Angeles, 574 per person in Ventura, $1,043 per person in San Bernardino, $650 per person in Sacramento, $865 per person in San Diego, $1,325 per person in San Francisco, and $964 per person in San Jose. ⁷

Travelers experienced an annual delay of 93 hours in the Los Angeles-Long Beach- Santa Ana area, a figure that ranks 1^st in the nation. The annual delay is 72 hours in the San Francisco-Oakland area, 55 hours in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, 53 hours in San Jose, 52 hours in San Diego, 33 hours in the Oxnard-Ventura area, 17 hours in Richmond, and 7 hours in Bakersfield. ⁸18 percent of commuters in California have a commute that is 45 minutes or more. ⁹

The state’s official forecast says the number of miles driven on Los Angeles and Orange County roads will increase 40 percent by 2020. In San Bernardino County, driving will grow 86 percent by 2020, but officials say they can afford just 10 percent more highway capacity. In Sacramento, even with $15 billion in planned road improvements, congestion will increase by 400 percent in the next 20 years. ¹⁰ In the San Fernando Valley area, the average morning rush-hour speed of 31 mph is expected to fall to 16 mph by 2025. ¹¹

In Los Angeles, which has been the most traffic-choked urban area in the country for 16 years in a row, rush-hour drivers lose 90 hours in traffic delays each year. San Francisco comes in second, with 68 hours lost annually. ¹² The total vehicle miles traveled in the region almost doubled in the last 20 years. ¹³

Disappearing open space: Population growth increases housing needs and generally causes greater development of open space and sprawl. Although California was once home to five million acres of wetlands, today only 454,000 acres survive—a loss of over 90 percent. ¹⁴The total number of housing units in California increased by over one million units during the 1990s. ¹⁵,¹⁶ An area equivalent to one and a half times the size of Rhode Island was paved over in California during that period. ¹⁷,¹⁸ The California Department of Housing and Community Development found that Los Angeles and Orange Counties do not have a sufficient amount of developable land in order to accommodate population growth in the next 20 years. ¹⁹ To meet the needs of its expanding population, California will need 4.3 million more housing units by 2020, says the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, guaranteeing that open space will continue to vanish. ²⁰

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 150.4 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the San Bernardino-Riverside metropolitan area, and 100 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Sacramento sprawl consumed an additional 89.7 square miles and population increase accounted for 100 percent of the increase. 193.1 square miles of growth was 77.9 percent attributable in the San Francisco-Oakland area, 61.2 square miles of growth was 100 percent attributable to population growth in San Jose, and 393.8 square miles of growth was 100 percent attributable to population growth. ²²

Farmland Loss: The Central Valley, which provides half of all fruits and vegetables to America, is the most threatened farm region in the country due to its massive population increase, according to American Farmland Trust. In the past 20 years, over two million people have moved to the region, shrinking cropland by 500,000 acres. ²³ The valley’s current population of 5.5 million is expected to grow to 12.5 million by 2040, reducing farmland by another one million to 2.5 million acres. ²⁴

Crowded housing: A rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born. ²⁵, ²⁶ In 2005 over 962,000 California households were defined as crowded or severely crowded by housing authorities. ²⁷

California has the most crowded cities in the country, as measured by the percentage of packed households. Of the 50 cities with the highest percentage of crowded homes, 39 are in California. ²⁸ Los Angeles County has the highest rate of severe crowding in the U.S., at 15 percent. ²⁹ In the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County area, 12 percent of all households are considered severely crowded.³⁰ Santa Ana, which is more densely populated than New York or Los Angeles and has the nation’s second highest percentage of immigrant residents, 20 percent of housing falls below city codes. ³¹ Experts say the trend in California is being driven by immigrants who come for jobs but can’t afford the rents. Families move in together and often take boarders to help pay rents or mortgages. So many people living in single-family homes strains services such as trash collection, schools, and public safety.

Lack of affordable housing: Every year, California builds about 140,000 new places for people to live. Every year, that’s 80,000 short, say state housing officials. Only one in three Californians can afford a median-priced home of more than $250,000. The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development warns of extreme shortages in years ahead. ³²

Poverty: Poverty increased more in California than anywhere else in the country in the past decade. Most of the new pockets of poverty were in areas with large immigrant populations. ³³ A RAND report finds: “A declining demand for low-skill workers combined with a continuing influx of low-skill immigrants has increased competition for low-skill jobs within the state and has hurt the earnings of some low-skill workers. It has also contributed to a growing disparity between the wages of foreign- and native-born workers.” ³⁴

The plentiful supply of low-wage immigrant labor has lowered average incomes overall, says a labor specialist with the Public Policy Institute of California. ³⁵ Southern California’s poverty is extending to suburbs long seen as refuges from urban problems. Riverside County saw a 63 percent rise in poverty and San Bernardino County a 51 percent increase. ³⁶

In Los Angeles, where more than 40 percent of residents were born in another country, 22 percent live at the poverty level, up from 19 percent a decade earlier. Nearly one-third of the city’s residents say they can’t speak English “very well.” One in ten adults in the region has six years of education or less, 41 and 19 percent of those over age 24 have less than a ninth-grade education. ³⁷

Nearly three-fifths of the poor children in California are immigrants. The poverty rate for immigrant children (29 percent) is higher than the rate for non-immigrant children (17 percent). ³⁸

In 2005 16.2 percent of immigrants in California lived below the federal poverty line, an increase of 3.3 percent since 2000. Among non-citizens the poverty rate climbs to 22.2 percent. ³⁹

Health Care: In 1994’s Proposition 187 California voters banned the use of tax money to provide non-emergency care to illegal aliens, but a U.S. District Judge overturned the ballot proposition in 1999. California now provides both legal and illegal aliens with Emergency Medicaid, pre-natal care, and nursing home care. ⁴⁰

As the state cuts its health care budget to try to make ends meet, the increase in uncompensated care for immigrants has forced some hospitals to reduce staff, increase rates, cut back services, and close maternity wards and trauma centers. In the last decade, 60 California emergency rooms have closed. ⁴¹ California hospital losses totaled $390 million in 2001, up from $325 million in 2000 and $316 million in 1999. The crisis reaches throughout the state, with 80 percent of emergency departments reporting losses. ⁴²

One-third of the patients treated by the Los Angeles county health system each year are illegal aliens, according to county health officials. In 2002, the county spent $350 million providing health care to illegal aliens, according to the Department of Health Services. Officials said that if that money had been available, the county could have avoided the closure of 16 health clinics and possibly two hospitals, as well as cuts in services. ⁴³

Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista estimates that about one quarter of patients who are uninsured and don’t pay their bills are illegal aliens. The hospital loses $7 million to $10 million in uncompensated costs.⁴⁴ Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Hospital in El Centro, California lost over $1.5 million treating illegal immigrants in 2001. ⁴⁵

Water: Facing water shortages, due to shrinking resources and raging population growth, the people of California find themselves in a quandary. "I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I've been doing this 30 years," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.⁴⁶ His sentiment reflects a common one among California officials.

California’s population, less than 34 million in 2000, recently topped 38 million, and by 2050 that figure is projected to have increased by an additional 32 million,⁴⁷ largely due to immigration. California has seen a net increase of over one million immigrants enter the state since 2000. The foreign-born population increased between 2000 and 2006 by 11.7 percent while the native-born population increased by 6.2 percent. Immigrants alone made up a 27.2 percentage of the California population in 2006, and when the U.S.-born children of immigrants are added, immigrants account for all of the state’s rising population

According to 2007 data, each of these newcomers consumes on average 146 gallons of water per day.⁴⁸ If expected growth continues, by 2050 this will result in an increased water demand of 4.67 billion gallons of water per day. Just to meet a 15 percent increase in demand by 2030, officials say 32 billion gallons a year will have to be saved or expensively recycled -- enough to cover the San Fernando Valley with a foot of water.⁴⁹

Consequently, several communities are likely to face mandatory rationing in the near future.⁵⁰ The East Bay Municipal Utility District Board of Directors has already implemented such a program, asking residential customers to use 19 percent less water than their average consumption over the last three years. All who exceed their mandated consumption will be surcharged based on their violation’s extent.⁵¹

 In the Los Angeles area, recent court rulings, environmental agreements and competition from other urban centers have cut flows or sharply increased costs of water from the now depleted Owens Valley, Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and the colorado River.⁵²As these natural sources continue to run dry, the price of water will continue to rise.

Persistent drought and climate change heighten the dilemma. The northern Sierra Nevada, which holds much of the state's snowpack, experienced its driest spring in more than seventy years leading to Sacramento’s driest spring in recorded history. With the summer’s runoff forecast less than three-fifths of normal runoff, Sacramento’s summer and fall will likely be dry as well.⁵³

Air Pollution: Southern California has the worst air in the nation, and the state’s children have the country’s highest rates of asthma. ⁵⁴ In San Bernardino County, the cancer risk simply from breathing is 1,400 per million people—the EPA’s standard for acceptable cancer risk is one in a million. ⁵⁵ If the South Coast Air Quality Management District doesn't dramatically lower pollutions levels by 2006, the EPA could impose major sanctions on the region, including billions of dollars in lost highway funds, commuter restrictions, and shortened hours of operation for industry. ⁵⁶28 out of California’s 52 counties received a grade of “F” from the American Lung Association in their “State of the Air 2005” report. Four counties received a grade of “D”, and three counties received a grade of “C”. ⁵⁷

Impact of Immigration on Education

Half of all children in California have at least one immigrant parent. Nearly one in ten are foreign-born themselves. ⁵⁸ California spends almost $2.2 billion annually to educate illegal immigrant students in grades K-12—enough to pay the salaries of 41,764 teachers, or 14 percent of California's teachers. ⁵⁹

California schools are the most crowded in the nation, and classes often exceed 35 students per teacher (18 is considered ideal). ⁶⁰ And they will continue to grow:

Between 2000 and 2006 California’s K-12 enrollment increased by over 398,000 students, ⁶¹, ⁶² and is projected to increase by an additional 161,000 students by the year 2015. ⁶³ California’s student-teacher ratio of 20.8 ranks 49^th in the U.S. ⁶⁴

Lack of space forces some students to attend class on school stages or in the gym. ⁶⁵ Yet the state is still adding 100,000 new students each year. ⁶⁶ The state Department of Education estimates that 19 new classrooms will need to be built every day, seven days a week, for the next five years. ⁶⁷ The number of teachers will need to be doubled within ten years, meaning that 300,000 new educators will need to be hired. ⁶⁸

In Los Angeles, where schools are so crowded that some have lengthened the time between classes to give students time to make their way through packed halls, ⁶⁹ crowding in the next decade is projected to become so severe that some schools will have to hold double sessions (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and Saturday classes. Even if the district builds 86 new schools, all 49 existing high schools will still have to adopt year-round schedules to keep pace with enrollment increases. ⁷⁰

California’s Class Size Reduction program calls for adding thousands of new K-3 teachers, but finding classroom space has proved impossible in some areas. Many schools have had to give up libraries, art and music classrooms, and science and computer labs to create additional space. ⁷¹ The West Contra Costa school district is eliminating all sports, libraries, and counselors from its high schools to save money.⁷²

Illegal Immigration in California

California’s border counties incurred $79 million in emergency care for illegal aliens, the highest cost in the country. ⁷³ San Diego County paid $50.3 million during 1999 for criminal justice services and medical care related to illegal aliens. Imperial County spent $5.4 million on illegal aliens in 1999, according to a study on behalf of the United States-Mexico Border Counties Coalition. It costs each person living legally in San Diego and Imperial counties about $18.56 per year to pay for the costs incurred by illegal immigration. ⁷⁴

Solid Waste: California generates 1.55 tons of solid waste per capita. ⁷⁵

Endnotes:

1. FAIR estimate based on the 2006 Current Population Survey.
2. Table A. Leading States/Equivalents by population Changes: July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006.U.S. Census Bureau.
3. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Migrant Population for  States based on the March 2005 CPS", Pew Hispanic Center.
4. Martin, Jack. “Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red,” A Report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
5. Lee Green, "Infinite Ingress: A Human Wave Is Breaking Over California," Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2004.
6. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
7. Ibid.
8. "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
9. “U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet,” Population Reference Bureau.
10. Jim Wasserman, "2020 Traffic Report: Growth Means More Time Behind the Wheel for Everyone," Associated Press, September 19, 2002.
11. Lisa Mascaro, "Looming Traffic Crisis," Daily News of Los Angeles, August 4, 2002.
12. Lisa Mascaro, "Worst in the Nation: L.A. Commuters Each Year Lose 90 Hours in Gridlock," Daily News of Los Angeles, October 1, 2003
13. "Sprawl Hits the Wall," Southern California Studies Center, University of Southern California, Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, 2001.
14. Water Resources in California," U.S. Geological Survey, at http://water.wr.usgs.gov/wetland/
15. "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
16. "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990," 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.
17. "Table 1—Surface Area of Nonfederal and Federal Land and Water Areas, by Sate and Year," Summary Report, 1997 National Resources Inventory, revised December 2000, U.S Department of Agriculture.
18. Between 1992 and 1997, an average of 110,000 acres were paved over each year. This is more than 170 square miles a year, or about 1,700 square miles between 1990 and 2000.
19. Southern California Studies Center, op. cit.
20. Martin Kasindorf, op. cit.
21. Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, “Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities,” NumbersUSA, March 2001.
22. Daniel Wood, "The Limits of Sprawl: Massive Influx of People is Pushing California Toward a Meltdown," San Jose Mercury News, March 7, 2000.
23. Ibid.
24. Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded," USA Today, July 7, 2002.
25. Randy Capps, "Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families," Urban Institute, 2001.
26. Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
27. Sandra Marquez, "California Leads Nation in Number of People Per Household," Associated Press, June 15, 2002.
28. Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded," USA Today, July 2, 2002.
29. "Table DP-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," American Factfinder , U.S. Census Bureau.
30. Jennifer Mena, "California: In Housing Density, It’s Too Close for Comfort," Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2003
31. Jim Wasserman, "California Suffers Housing Shortage," The Columbian, July 22, 2001.
32. Leonel Sanchez, "Poverty Expands Its Reach," San Diego Union-Tribune, May 18, 2003.
33. Kevin McCarthy and Georges Veruez, Immigration in a Changing Economy, RAND, 1997.
34. Don Lee, "L.A. County Jobs Surge Since ‘93, But Not Wages," Los Angeles Times, July 26, 1999.
35. Peter Hong, Marla Dickerson, and Nancy Cleeland, "Southland’s Average Family Income Dropped in the ‘90s," Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2002.
36. Beth Barrett, "Poverty Rates Climb in Los Angeles, Census Figures Show," Los Angeles Daily News, May 15, 2002.
37. "The Changing Face of Child Poverty in California," National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, August 2002.
38. “California State Factsheet,” Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
39. "Medical Emergency: Costs of Uncompensated Care in Southwest Border Counties," US-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, September 2002.
40. "A System in Crisis, More ERs Shut; Losses Grow," California Medical Association, 2003.
41. Press Release, "CMA’s Annual ER Financial Report: Hospital Losses Reached $390 Million in 2001," California Medical Association, February 27, 2003.
42. Charlie LeDuff, "Los Angeles County Weighs Cost of Illegal Immigration," New York Times, May 21, 2003.
43. Emily Bazar, "Border Hospitals Claim Money Ills," Sacramento Bee, February 8, 2003.
44. Jerry Seper, "Mexican Medics Take Sick to U.S.," Washington Times, December 12, 2002.
45. Kathleen Sweeney, "California Water Officials Plan for Future Droughts," Daily News of Los Angeles, January 27, 2002.
46. Deborah Schoch, “Water shortage worst in decades, official says.” Los Angeles Times May 2, 2008
47.  FAIR. Projecting the U.S. population growth to 2050.
48. Center for Immigration Studies. November 2007. http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back1007.html
49. City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. Environmental Facts 2007
50. Rich Connell “L.A. prepares massive water-conservation plan” Los Angeles Times May 15, 2008
51. Deborah Schoch, Water shortage worst in decades, official says.” Los Angeles Times May 2, 2008
52. East Bay Municipal Utility District News, Oakland, CA. May 13, 2008.
53. Rich Connell “L.A. prepares massive water-conservation plan” Los Angeles Times May 15, 2008
54. Carrie Peyton Dahlberg and Matt Weiser. “Schwarzenegger hopes drought decree is wake-up call.” Sacramento Bee. June 5, 2008.
55. Andrew Silva, "Bad Air Comes Back," San Bernardino Sun, September 6, 2003.
56. Conor Friedersdorf, "AQMD to Weight Pollutant Proposal," San Bernardino Sun, July 9, 2003.
57. State of the Air 2005: California”, American Lung Association.
58. "Check Points," Urban Institute, September 2, 2000.
59. Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red, Federation for American Immigration Reform, August 2003.
60. Thomas Hargrove, "U.S. School Building Boom Fails to Meet Need," Scripps Howard News Service, March 8, 2001.
61. "Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-2000," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
62. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
63. Projections of Education Statistics to 2015, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
64. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
65. Thomas Hargrove, Ibid.
66. Ellen Lee, "McGrath Provides Answer to Space Question," Contra Costa Times, June 12, 2001.
67. Lee Green, "Infinite Ingress: A Human Wave Is Breaking Over California," Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2004.
68. "UC Teacher Recruitment and Preparation," Office of the President, University of California, at http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/commserv/FS0001TeachTrain.pdf .
69. Michelle Locke, "Running Out of Room at the Hotel California?" Associated Press, May 26, 2001.
70. Harrison Sheppard, "Crowding Becoming Crisis," Daily News of Los Angeles, February 18, 2001
71. "The Debate Over Class Size," Education World, February 23, 1998.
72. Erika Hayasaki and Patrick Dillon, "School District Shuts Out Sports," Los Angeles Times, March 11, 2004.
73. Robert Gehrke, "Emergency Care for Undocumented Immigrants Costs $200 Million, Study Finds," Associated Press, September 27, 2002.
74. Jo Moreland, "Study: County Pays $50M Annually in Border Costs," North County Times, February 6, 2002.
75. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.