Taxpayers Shouldn’t Support Illegals

I find it mind-boggling that Many Mansions has criticized the city of Thousand Oaks for not providing housing for illegal immigrants (“Forum Urged on Public Aid for Illegal Immigrants,” June 7).

So now the taxpayer is supposed to support illegal immigrants, as if we did not have enough of our own to support. If Many Mansions is determined to house all comers regardless of their legal status, why don’t they do it with their own money?

Dan Hardy, the executive director of Many Mansions, is quoted as saying: “I would say just about everybody in this community benefits, directly or indirectly, from illegals. The businesses hire them--country clubs, fast-food places, the list goes on and on. They’re not here for the housing, they’re here to work.”

I would say that just about everybody in this community pays, directly or indirectly, for illegals. The children of illegals go to school at taxpayers’ expense, more than $5,000 per student per year.

Emergency-care facilities are filled with illegals and the cost is borne by the taxpayer and by everyone who pays insurance premiums. Then, too, illegals don’t bother to get auto insurance--again we pay.

We also pay when we put them in jail for committing crimes, crimes above and beyond the felonious act of entering our country illegally.

Add all these figures together and it is quite a cost we pay for cheap labor at someone’s country club or fast-food restaurant. We all don’t benefit from the presence of illegal immigrants, Mr. Hardy.

ROGER McGRATH

Thousand Oaks