Trump's Immigration Policy Contradicts His Election Platform
Trump has barred Muslims entering the US from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Syria. But his policy towards those coming in through Mexico is an escalation from his attitude, pre-election.
Trump’s immigration plans are unconstitutional because
(a) The children of some illegal immigrants are US citizens. Many would be expected to leave the US with their parents to return to the motherland. As of 2012, around five percent of all school-going US citizens up to 12th grade had at least one undocumented immigrant parent
(b) Infringing on the rights of others to determine someone’s residency status. There are privacy issues involved in determining whether a resident in the United States is there legally or not. The numbers are so high that administrative errors are a possibility. These aren’t human chattal going into internment camps, streamlined and processed and gassed. They will continue to live their lives, with access to lawyers and legal recourse, both in the international and US courts.
Cost-Benefit
The catch-and-release policy doesn’t seem to work. But detaining every undocumented immigrant in the country, and preventing additional illegal immigration would cost between $400 billion and $600 billion and take 20 years, without even increasing the numbers of border police and others who oversee the ports and borders over that 20 year period.
Undocumented immigrants contribute between $11 and $12 billion to the US economy and make up 3% of private sector Gross Domestic Product. If Trump wants to get rid of the nasty ones, he should go ahead.
The expense of Immigrants to the US taxpayer
The stats show that native households claim $4,500 in benefits while those headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) claim $6,000 – the unrounded figures put the difference at 41%. These figures factor in food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches for children, anti-poverty programs and other stuff.
There are statistics that also factor in the education costs for the (often) US-born children of immigrants (who are citizens), as well as access to public facilities and utilities. If an immigrant population adds significantly to a city, it’s a given that spending on services - whether law enforcement, or water supply – will be forced to increase.
According to this study, if just one person in a family group led by an immigrant – for example, a US citizen wife of a head of household who is an undocumented or legal immigrant – claimed some kind of medication as an entitlement – or if their child used a lunch program in school – they are included in the statistics.
More about these studies, other stats and a plea for the immigrant population in the next post.
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