Actually, we can’t afford not to build the Wall
Article publisher:
New York Post
Article date:
15 March 2019
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
President Trump launched another battle for border security on Monday, calling for $8.6 billion in funding for the Wall in his proposed federal budget for next year. Predictably, top Democrats came out swinging, bashing a border wall as “expensive and ineffective.”
Truth is, the Democrats aren’t leveling with the public about the billions we are already forced to spend on shelters, food, diapers, medical care and child care for migrants sneaking across the border and claiming asylum. Not to mention the costs of public schooling and health care provided free to migrants once they are released into communities.
By deterring illegal crossings, the Wall will pay for itself in less than two years. It’s a bargain.
Look what it costs us when a Central American teenager crosses the border illegally without an adult. Uncle Sam spends a staggering $775 per day for each teen housed at a shelter at Florida’s Homestead Air Reserve Base.
There they get medical care, schooling and recreation. They stay, on average, 67 days before being released to a sponsor. Now do the math. That’s almost $52,000 per teen. American parents would appreciate the government spending that money on their kids. Imagine the government handing you a check for $52,000 to defray the costs of raising your teenager.
There are bigger costs ahead. The number of illegal border-crossers just hit an 11-year high. More than 76,000 people in February alone. US and Mexican officials predict hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.
The migrants use the word “asylum” as their get-in-free card. When they say it to a border agent, they gain entry to the US 80 percent of the time, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The government temporarily houses them before eventually releasing them with an immigration court date. But half never go on to file an asylum claim, instead disappearing into all parts of the US, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions noted.
They are turning asylum into a scam, in other words...