Despite the headline, this AP article trashes the bill that would require the federal government to track down every one of the 12 million undocumented immigrants illegal non-citizens. Sure, it couches the argument in terms of the logisitics around deporting them, rather than granting them amnesty, but the government in either case has to find them before they can give them freebies or ship them home.
I don’t have to make assumptions about the author’s slant, she quotes a liberal think tank to support her journalism cause.
Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which would be responsible for deportations, said they have no projections on what it would take to rid the United States of an estimated 12 million people.
But the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, has put the cost at $215 billion over five years.
She goes on to cite this “study” to further her advocacy against deportation:
Finding and catching people would be the most expensive part, about $158 billion, Goyle said. The study calculated it would cost an additional $34 billion to detain them, $3 billion for extra beds, $11 billion for legal processing and $9 billion to put them on buses or airplanes.
Let’s break that down.
1. $158 billion to find and catch. - If the cost of finding them is fatal, how do we expect to find them and force them to pay back taxes or file the proper paperwork to start their “path toward citizenship”?
2. $34 billion to detain them. - $34 BILLION??? I just searched Motel 6’s website and came up with a rate of $46.79 per night. With maximum occupancy in each room being 4, we could house all 12 million undocumented immigrants illegal non-citizens for a month for just $4.2 billion. I just saved the government almost $30 billion. (We could always have Sheriff Joe Arpiao build more tent cities too.)
3. $3 billion for extra beds - What are we shopping at Ethan Allen here? First off, if we go with the Motel 6 idea, we won’t need beds, because last time I checked, the motels already had them. But if we need to chunk some extras in the rooms, we could provide one of these to every undocumented immigrants illegal non-citizen for just over $707 million. I just saved our government another $2 billion+.
4. $11 billion for legal processing - That’s about $916 per undocumented immigrants illegal non-citizen. How ’bout we get the 7 million Americans who still refuse to find jobs in our growing economy to handle the paperwork.
5. $9 billion to put them on buses or airplanes - Their free feet got ‘em here, their free feet can take ‘em back! Before you go accusing me of not having a heart, I will propose in the alternative to fund automobiles to take them back. But $9 billion? Please! For just over $1.4 billion, we can purchase 480,000 pickups for $3,000 each which can typically hold about 25 people in the bed and let them drive themselves home.
Bottom line, these numbers are a crock. And if it is too costly to track all these folks down for purposes of deporting… how in the hell are we going to track them all down to award them their amnesty?
Carlos Portillo, who owns La Fuente Restaurant, one of the most popular restaurants in Tucson, Ariz., said the sudden loss of workers from mass deportations would be economically devastating for this country.
“Right now everything that’s happening in the United States, the restaurant and hospitality industry, all the housing and building construction, all the farming, this is being done mainly by illegal immigrants,” he said. “This country needs these illegal workers more than the illegal workers need this country.”
Hmmm… 12 million illegals, 7 million unemployed Americans. Looks like we could kill two birds with one stone. Then we’d be left with a net total of 5 million illegals to track down for back taxes, fines, and penalties. So on top of the billions of dollars I’ve just saved our country with my proposals above, I’ve just simultaneously slashed even those reduced figures by almost 60% while offering a solution that reduces the U.S. unemployment rate to ZERO.
Why must the politicians make this government stuff so complicated?
