Your comparison of spending on law enforcement vs immigration is eye opening. But the one that stopped me in my tracks was the Covid relief comparison. Thanks for this post.
Absolutely phenominal breakdown of the enforcement spending vs social programs ratio. The part that really hit me was how we're spending almost as much on immigration enforcement as we do ensuring 37 million kids have Medicaid coverage, that's just messed up. My sister works for a state Medicaid office and she's been telling me about the massive backlog they have with the reduced budgets. Kinda shows where our prioritys are at I guess.
Great piece - immigration enforcement is very costly which many often forget. Additionally, if we made legal immigration avenues easier (opposite of current policy), we'd reduce unauthorized immigration. That would reduce enforcement cost (and also make enforcement better) + increase tax base.
It's not really $5,500/year per undocumented immigrant, because even in their wildest dreams, they will struggle to deport their targeted 1 million per year. So for every one that's deported, it's actually $77,000 PLUS the lost tax revenue from those individuals.
I wish we could get this information out to more people. Excellent breakdown of the money that is to be used for immigration enforcement , what we could be doing with it instead, and what we are losing in tax dollars if immigration enforcement is successful. I also think this amount of money will not be spent without fraud and lining of pockets. It is alarming the comparison of state and local enforcement verse immigration enforcement …. Is it really about only immigration enforcement or citizen intimidation and surveillance?
Even unauthorized is a bit over stating it. I like to say "out of status". Many have overstayed visas, had temporary protective status revololked for political reasons, or simply been unable to comply with all the complex and expensive beauricratic requirements to stay in status. Immigrants are being deported for bounced checks and traffic tickets, even if they have legal status.
Your comparison of spending on law enforcement vs immigration is eye opening. But the one that stopped me in my tracks was the Covid relief comparison. Thanks for this post.
You make it so simple
Excellent analysis.
Absolutely phenominal breakdown of the enforcement spending vs social programs ratio. The part that really hit me was how we're spending almost as much on immigration enforcement as we do ensuring 37 million kids have Medicaid coverage, that's just messed up. My sister works for a state Medicaid office and she's been telling me about the massive backlog they have with the reduced budgets. Kinda shows where our prioritys are at I guess.
Great piece - immigration enforcement is very costly which many often forget. Additionally, if we made legal immigration avenues easier (opposite of current policy), we'd reduce unauthorized immigration. That would reduce enforcement cost (and also make enforcement better) + increase tax base.
It's not really $5,500/year per undocumented immigrant, because even in their wildest dreams, they will struggle to deport their targeted 1 million per year. So for every one that's deported, it's actually $77,000 PLUS the lost tax revenue from those individuals.
I wish we could get this information out to more people. Excellent breakdown of the money that is to be used for immigration enforcement , what we could be doing with it instead, and what we are losing in tax dollars if immigration enforcement is successful. I also think this amount of money will not be spent without fraud and lining of pockets. It is alarming the comparison of state and local enforcement verse immigration enforcement …. Is it really about only immigration enforcement or citizen intimidation and surveillance?
Nice to see you back. Hope your child birth experience went well Look forward to seeing more of your apt analysis.
Even unauthorized is a bit over stating it. I like to say "out of status". Many have overstayed visas, had temporary protective status revololked for political reasons, or simply been unable to comply with all the complex and expensive beauricratic requirements to stay in status. Immigrants are being deported for bounced checks and traffic tickets, even if they have legal status.