In a letter this past week to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the Department of Homeland Security estimated that it would cost $135 billion to deport all of the illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. Although the figure is less than what I would have guessed, it remains a meaningless figure.
DHS: Deporting all illegal immigrants would cost $135 billion.
Deporting all 12 million illegal immigrants is neither politically or logistically realistic. I’m not suggesting that the illegal immigrants have any right to US citizenship. I’m just pointing out that a government that cannot put firm limits on unemployment benefits certainly lacks the political will to fully enforce our immigration laws.
In a simple characterization, Republicans want our borders secured and Democrats want amnesty comprehensive immigration reform. The optimist says that when two groups want different things, there is an opportunity for negotiation.
The DREAM Act is a bill pushed by the Democrats that would provide conditional legal status to illegal immigrants that were brought to the US before their sixteenth birthday. The law would give green cards to any applicant that promises to complete two years of college or two years of military service.
Unsurprisingly, the bill is seriously flawed. First of all, it isn’t targeted to just upstanding high school kids. The bill allows applicants as old as 35 years old to apply. And second, anyone who claims to meet the criteria must be granted legal status unless the government can prove otherwise. It’s a convenient shelter for any illegal immigrant to take advantage of while hoping the government doesn’t spend the resources to detect fraudulent applications.
For a more exhaustive list of the bill’s flaws, read David Frum’s editorial, A DREAM bill that’s more like a nightmare.
All told, the DREAM Act could immediately give green cards to 2.1 million applicants.
History has proven that amnesty without border enforcement is a disaster. About 3 million illegal immigrants received amnesty under Reagan’s 1986 program. It was to be the amnesty to end all amnesties.
Well, it wasn’t the final amnesty. The ‘one time amnesty’ produced another seven amnesty acts and we now have 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
DREAM Act could give legal status to 2.1 million
The DREAM Act and other such bills are open invitations to the world to illegally enter the US, apply for protection and short-cut to the front of the citizenship line. Without secure borders and sharper crackdowns on visa fraud, the DREAM Act will produce the same result as Reagan’s amnesty program.
That said, I do believe that there is a future for the DREAM Act. Conferring citizenship on those that were too young to enter the US on their own is a fair place to begin reform. But it cannot happen until Washington first gains control of the flow of illegal immigration.
Border enforcement is currently overmatched by the flow of those entering the US. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal entries into the US each year. And frankly, I don’t believe that the Obama administration is serious about enforcing the border.
In the months leading up to the midterm elections, Republicans and some border Democrats were unified in their support for more resources along the border. Sen. McCain, for example, requested up to 6,000 National Guard troops and $2 billion to reinforce the border. Yet, Obama countered with 1,200 troops and $500 million. If it weren’t for the public pressure leading up to the election, I’m doubtful that he would have authorized anything at all.
But nonetheless, the Republicans should make it clear that the DREAM Act, subject to a few revisions, is worth supporting if the Democrats first ante up the resources and manpower to control the flow of illegal immigration. Send more troops. Finish the fence. Expand the use of drones. Crackdown on visa fraud.
Neil Rosekrans is a founder and partner of StateBrief.com. He has been a guest political commentator for the Arizona Law Channel, NBC's Sunday Square Off and The Terry Gilberg Show on KFYI. Neil earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his MBA and Masters in Public Policy, with an emphasis in International Relations, from Pepperdine University.
Neil and his wife, Beth, live in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
Amnest w/o border security has proven a failure…Border security first, then DREAM Act…http://j.mp/foNfBL
Those numbers come out to just over $10K per illegal.
That’s less than one year’s worth of unemployment and other benefits collected by illegals.
That’s anywhere from 3 to 6 months prison cost.
1/3 of all convicted violent felons in the US are not US citizens.
The number of illegals exceeds the number of unemployed citizens seeking jobs.
I don’t think it’s the $135B cost that even matters – it’s losing the Hispanic vote that would be costly.
You make a good point, but in the past two years the GOP has appeared to be solely focused on defeating Obama. The GOP has shown zero interest in anything approaching governance or governing. We saw this with HCR and the GOP’s “we’re going to take our toys and go home” approach, and I have no faith whatsoever in them doing anything different with respect to immigration. I fear that the GOP is far more interested in scoring political points by being “tough” on immigration than it is in actually solving the problem.
With healthcare reform, the GOP did put forth ideas such as being able to purchase health insurance across state lines. Their ideas weren’t incorporated. But their plan for governance hasn’t been much other than “we’ll do better than last time around”…
On immigration and border security, it may come down to which party blinks first.
Again who cares about your opinion. Let’s give these students an opportunity. Pass the DREAM ACT.
to the person signed in as again——-if we give these students a chance who is going to pay for their tuition the stupid government that has already financed all their school years for the past 16 years or so????we need to stop paying these illegals for coming into this country through the back door. make more raids on businesses that are suspected of hiring them, and rent buses and take them back across the borders to where they came from.,mexico or canada or any where else they need to be delivered to,they have no official rights in this country so don;t even bother with lawyers or judges or anything like that. it will be less costly.
First rule of problem solving: Identify the cause. -The border is unsecure
Second rule of problem solving: Stop the cause of the problem. -Close the border
Third rule of problem solving: Address the resulting damage of the original causation. -now we can discuss solutions for those in the country illegally.