Illegal immigrants are a factor in the budget gap math
Based on my e-mail, a lot of folks think the solution to California’s state budget deficit is to round up all the illegal immigrants and truck them down to Mexico.
Wrong. Even if it were logistically possible and the deportees didn’t just climb off the truck and hitch another ride back up north, their absence from the state wouldn’t come close to saving enough tax dollars to balance a budget that has a $42-billion hole projected over the next 17 months.
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But it hasn’t been PC for officeholders to talk about this for years, ever since Gov. Pete Wilson broke his pick waging an aggressive campaign for Proposition 187.
That 1994 ballot initiative sought to bar illegal immigrants from most public services, including education.
Voters approved the measure overwhelmingly, but it was tossed out by the courts.
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