STUCK WITH THE BILL

Biden’s Reckless Border Behavior

The Dutch know – it’s always cheaper to build the dykes than let the sea flood in at its whim, having to repair the damage year after year. This is the same reason we’ve fought for border security. Once you open the door, the damage caused by the flood of illegals costs more than a border wall or sensible regulation would. And we have to pay the price of Biden’s reckless open border policies.

Let’s Look at the Costs

You’ve heard how illegals have been housed in formerly great hotels, the kind you and I have never stayed in because of the price. Especially in New York, where they have a dumb policy that no one can be unhoused or unfed, Mayor Eric Adams used around $4 billion taxpayer dollars to lease hotels and other buildings. But the cost doesn’t end there.

As an example, the stately Roosevelt Hotel will close as a shelter in June, but there are still 2,000 “migrants” living there, and being fed. The hotel is actually owned by the Pakistani government, who is currently absorbed in a war with India and whose finances are in dire straits. To reopen, the hotel must be massively refurbished to a cost that is estimated to be from $50,000-$90,000 per room. Total: $90 million just for the rooms, not including the common areas. Guess who has to pay? The citizens of New York who were not only abused during Covid, but had to deal with this influx and the accompanying crime as well.

Half a million illegal children came in, mostly unaccompanied, and they need education, further burdening our school system with poorly educated kids who mostly don’t speak English. With mandates governing teacher/student ratios, you will see costs rise, while educational results for citizen-children drop even further.

What about health care? CA Governor Nuisance was going to cover them with Medicaid, but appears to be backing away from that as the costs are rolling in. People who don’t have insurance tend to take all problems to the costliest vendor: emergency rooms. And who ends up paying the real bill? The rest of us.

Can most of these illegals work? Given that they are, in general, less educated with fewer skills and limited English, the answer would be that it is unlikely, especially as Blue states rush to just give them money and benefits. It’s so bad that even poor, Black residents in Chicago have spoken out about how much better illegals are treated than actual citizens.

Then we have the massive cost of deporting them, which is necessary. There have to be consequences to breaking our laws, especially for the violent, criminal element that are plaguing our streets. I’m with Trump; just ship them back without a trial, but that still costs money. Trials such as are being demanded by the Left will cost even more.

And what is the cost of all the crime that is the result of this invasion? The personal cost is high to those victims, but it is also high in terms of policing. Bad citizen actors may be ignored if we have too many illegals committing crimes. And in Blue states, we see almost all criminals let go after being arrested. That makes the job of policing impossible. Why risk your life to go after people who will never face the consequences?

Trump is right to offer a bribe to self-deport. But what if we simply stopped taking care of them? No money, no health care, no schooling, no transportation, no food. In fact, allow landlords to be allowed to refuse to rent to them. That might encourage more self-deportation, the cheapest alternative.

SCOTUS has a role to play too. They need to stop local federal courts from issuing nationwide mandates, which is not their role. It slows the process and costs even more money. And they need to outlaw birthright citizenship. Yes, they were born here, but they have no allegiance to this country, which is a Constitutional requirement for citizenship.

Incentives Work

And so do disincentives. Trump’s election caused the border surge to slow dramatically. Knowing they wouldn’t be welcomed like the prodigal sons, many are giving up on trying to cross. The numbers are down by 90% now, just in a short time.

If we stop giving illegals anything, they will leave (and others won’t come in). It was the “generosity” of the Left that caused them to come in droves. Who wouldn’t show up for a free lunch?

If we make it hard for them to work and find a place to live, this will also act as a disincentive.

Finally, we need to create a trusted-worker program to allow workers temporary residency to fill jobs that are needed such as farm work. You can’t bring your family and you don’t get government benefits. But should a worker do a great job for a number of years, bringing value to our country and paying taxes, they might be allowed to apply for residency (not citizenship). Only people interested in working would come.

Finally, we need the right to pick and choose who gets to come here. We need the best and brightest. Many of our immigrants from a variety of countries have brought amazing value and are cherished members of society. We don’t need those who can’t work or won’t work. And we only need a limited number of low-skilled workers.

I’m hoping this is the plan.