$41.2 billion annually Well, the Center for American Progress today released the first-ever cost assessment of a mass deportation policy for the 10 million undocumented persons currently in the country and the 500,000 that successfully cross the border each year. And guess what? It would essentially drain the Treasury. The data analysis estimates the cost to be at least $206 billion over 5 years ($41.2 billion annually), and could be as high as $230 billion. We arrived at this number even after assuming that 2 million of the 10 million would leave on their own--a pretty large assumption.
So, does immigrant hating
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and former House Speaker
Rep. Newt Gingrich have $206 billion laying around?
No, because they political party is spending federal money like a
drunken sailors. No offense to drunken sailors.
Tancredo, Gingrich and the rest of there ilk can preach there rhetoric to score cheap political points while only offering 'round them up, kick them out' solutions which is not reasonable.
Most reasonable politicians have rejected mass deportation as costly and ineffective measure that would do little to improve our security and could devastate key sectors of our economy. This study puts the nail in the coffin for the "just deport `em" crowd.
It is time for effective immigration reform,
not rhetoric. Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy teamed up on Thursday to introduce a bipartisan immigration reform bill that would allow some of the estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to get legal jobs and eventual citizenship. [..]
The proposal would allow illegal immigrants to apply for temporary work permits that could last for six years. They would have to clear criminal background checks, pass an English language test and pay a $2,000 fee to qualify.
At the end of the six years, they and their families could apply for permanent resident status, and five years later for citizenship.
John McCain and Edward Kennedy immigration reform bill will be a good start.
Yes, I am bias my parents were immigrants.
(Hat Tip to
Think Progress )
Cross-Post at my blog: A Liberal Stance on Politics