I noted an article yesterday, headlined:
It began:
The swelling population of illegal immigrants and their kids is costing American taxpayers $135 billion a year, the highest ever, driven by free medical care, education and a huge law enforcement bill, according to the the most authoritative report on the issue yet.
And despite claims from pro-illegal immigration advocates that the aliens pay significant off-setting taxes back to federal, state and local treasuries, the Federation for American Immigration Reform report tallied just $19 billion, making the final hit to taxpayers about $116 billion.
State and local governments are getting ravaged by the costs, at over $88 billion. The federal government, by comparison, is getting off easy at $45 billion in costs for illegals.
There's more at the link.
President Trump's much-touted wall along our southern border (across which the overwhelming majority of those illegals come) is, by comparison, estimated to cost anywhere from "$10 billion or less" to $67 billion, depending on which news report you believe. Even at the high end, that would cost less than half as much as one year's illegal immigration costs. Once it was built, attention could turn to getting rid of as many as possible of those illegal aliens, saving us more and more money every year as their numbers diminished.
I don't know about the wall's opponents, but I know a bargain when I see one!
Peter
3 comments:
That's not even counting remission.
That is, much of the money earned by illegal aliens is sent out of the communities in which it's earned, to family members in Mexico.
It's an excellent place to invoke Keynes and his multiplyer effects with respect to local economies (in this case, the number bring multiplied by is negative).
FAIR has a clear agenda of reducing legal and illegal immigration, so we can assume their estimates on costs are on the high side. How much so remains to be seen. No doubt pro-immigration groups will dispute the report.
How about a compromise? Let dreamers & illegals build the wall. Those who do so, will win citizenship. Those who do not help will be deported promptly with no appeal.
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