Joe Biden has ceded all control of America’s southern border to the drug cartels and coyotes who ferry illegal immigrants across the Rio Grande and through the borderlands. Along with those illegal immigrants come drugs and human trafficking. In The Messenger, Kristin Tate explains the high costs of Biden’s abandonment of the border. She writes:
Consider that there were 2.76 million border crossings last fiscal year, before the end of Title 42. Compare that to 3.65 million, should estimates of 10,000 crossers per day materialize. The nearly 4 million migrants per year will have a serious effect on the nation’s budget. Even with the debt ceiling compromise passed by Congress, the United States still faces trillions in deficits over the next decade. Immigrants, according to one study, are nearly twice as likely as natural-born citizens to utilize welfare programs.
Another report by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 55 percent of noncitizen-headed households utilize such programs, versus around 30 percent for native-born citizens. Some immigrants are restricted in their use of certain welfare programs directly, but because any children born in this country are citizens, they often can and do receive welfare benefits. Compounding that, noncitizens who stay in the U.S. are more likely to use welfare than those who just arrived. The same study found that half of new noncitizens receive welfare, while the rate for long-term nonresidents is an alarming 70 percent.
Current estimates of the costs to federal, state and local governments caused by illegal immigration are more than $150 billion, another study found, including nearly $8 billion for public education alone. The expansion of migration caused by Biden’s policies could result in dramatically higher totals. Add this up and compound for new migrants and the rate of inflation, and we are talking several trillion dollars — at least — over the next decade.
Furthermore, the taxes paid by illegal immigrants cover less than one-fifth of the cost to taxpayers to house and feed migrants. Tax credits, including for children, often mean that migrants actually receive back more from paying income taxes than they put in.
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