Earlier this week, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a Senior Fellow with the American Immigration Council (AIC), claimed in an article titled New Report Shows the Devastating Costs of Mass Deportation that “an effort to arrest, detain, process, and remove one million undocumented immigrants per year would cost the U.S. government at least $88 billion per year, ultimately adding up to nearly one trillion dollars in taxpayer costs.”
Since the AIC chose to delve into the costs, let’s indulge them with a cost-benefit analysis focusing on the dollar amounts and then ask you, dear reader, to make a judgement as to whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the economic and societal costs of outrageous administration policy or to take action and deport and, by doing so, mitigate the harm being done to the country’s productive classes.
The Biden-Harris administration has allowed, at a minimum, 8.7 million illegal border crossers into the United States, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Although the administration touts these illegal immigrants as future workers, consumers, and taxpayers, contributing financially to America’s coffers, new research shows that illegal immigrants, the vast majority of whom have limited education and English proficiency, will be a financial drain on the United States. The Manhattan Institute study found that if the educational background of new illegal immigrants is the same as the educational background of illegals from last decade, then 46% would have less than a high school diploma while another 40% would have just a high school diploma.
But wait, Mr. Reichlin-Melnick would say that “beyond fiscal costs, the report details how the U.S. economy would suffer if 4% of the workforce was deported.” Sure. But the question to ask is this: qui bono or who actually benefits? In his 2016 book, We Wanted Workers, Professor George Borjas informs us who the true beneficiaries of mass immigration, are stating, “The current level of immigration in the United States generated a $2.1 trillion increase in GDP. But the immigrants themselves get paid about 98 percent of the increase; very little gets trickled down to the natives.” The remaining 2% surplus for the United States comes from reducing wages for Americans, who are competing now with immigrants for jobs, and increasing immigrant incomes and firm profits.
Hellbound and Down 