Politico’s Josh Gerstein provides them, and the first one is funny as hell
1. It’s so darn expensive
Costing more than $40 billion over 10 years, the “border surge†and fencing proposal is so expensive that it was virtually unthinkable just a week or two ago — until an unexpectedly generous scoring of the broader immigration bill by the Congressional Budget Office left the bill’s backers with a pot of cash (at least in budgeting terms) that could be used to sweeten the deal and get more Republicans on board.
Good grief. That’s a measly $4 billion a year to protect our borders, something that is actually mentioned in the Constitution. Government spent more than that on the worthless “green” parts of the Stimulus. Obama wasted $850 billion in the few years the stimulus was active.
Also mentioned are
- It’s Congressional micromanagement on steroids (hmm, I don’t remember this complaint regarding Obamacare, gun control, and Dodd-Frank, among others)
- The trigger isn’t as powerful as it seems at first blush (trigger? What trigger? They’re simply goals that the Sec Of DHS can waive)
- System to track foreigners will have big gaps (completely true, because Dems wanted this watered down)
- Tens of billions for the border, but little further away (in other words, forgetting about security for those that are already here)
Meanwhile, here’s more fun from Corker-Hoeven
Starting page 757, does make it a criminal offense, with jail time, for crossing illegally or being in the US illegally, along with civil penalties (fines). Kudos for that. But, we should simply fine them then kick them out, not pay to jail them.
You wouldn’t believe the number of times that the SecDHS can waive stuff, even for murderers, terrorists, and pedophiles.
On the plus side, entities which are legal sponsors of programs which bring visitors in will be responsible for keeping track of status and need to be bonded (starting page 849)
More later as I read through it.
Teach the stimulus did indeed cost a lot. BUT 1/3 of that cost was in tax reduction and 1/3 was for direct aid to states to pay the salaries of teachers police and fire. Only 1/3 was for everything else . About 60 billion went for your oft ridiculed “green” projects/ That included 770,000 homes winterized, about 700 square miles of nuke contaminated land leftover from the cold war,
The number of immigrants now crossing is the lowest in decades. Fence will also keep immigrants IN as well as out.
And GOOD GRIEF Teach that 4 billion is just the INCREASE. The current outlay is close to 20 Billion The current cost to catch each of the 350,000 caught each year works out to about 70,000.
we spend more on border enforcement than the coswt of having immigrants here
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/07/the_cost_of_immigration_enforcement_105490.html
Oh john, once again you demonstrate a lack of critical thinking.
The Real Clear Politics article you cite is written by an open borders advocate who is hardly an unbiased source.
However in the article, he does something that is blatantly dishonest, which is why you probably believed him. Edward Schumacher-Matos states:
The “studies” don’t have to change at all. The problem is that Schumacher-Matos uses the entire budgets of both ICE and the US Customs as being devoted solely to stopping illegal immigrants. They are not. Customs agents are far more active and far more of their budget is in inspecting goods that come in and out of the country. Customs also doesn’t deal just with illegal immigrants coming into the country, it deals with all people entering and leaving the country.
In other words, Schumacher-Matos took the whole budget of a Federal department and said it applied to just one part of their job responsibilities.
That is factually false and silly.
Which is why john tried to use it as an authoritative source.
John, you just offered a good fiscal rationale to make sure the border is secured, which is cheaper than attempting to catch them when they are here. It’s cheaper to stop them at the border. Thank you!
[…] Teach has a look at some border security “pitfalls” and his awesome Sunday Blogless Pinup […]
Illegals>>>>use the Eisenhower plan…..plus:
>Fine anyone who employs them.
>Deny fed funds to states that don’t cooperate.
>”Bribe” (like we do Egypt, Pakistan, et al) Mexico to keep their people home….subtracting $$ from bribe for everyone who crosses border in the future.
Simple.
Gitarcarver, don’t forget, part of ICE and Border Patrol is to harass drivers who are driving across country or through their state. Far away from the border.
Also, hey, aren’t we already designating those who cross our borders without permission as criminals? Didn’t they already commit a crime? So, why do we need a new law to make it a crime?
Also, don’t we already have a law that declared that 700 miles of walk-around fencing be constructed? Why do we need a new law telling the Feds to do what they are supposed to do?
On the plus side teach, programs that are dedicated to helping illegals cross the border will get huge cash cow from this bill. As well as trial lawyers.
The issue is not the crime Gumball, the issue in the section is the PENALTY.
As it stands right now, U.S.C. 1325 doesn’t have a criminal penalty for being in the country illegally or returning the country illegally. The bill rewrote the section to include criminal penalties as well as civil penalties. It is not a “new law.” It is a re-writing of the old and adding new provisions to it.
Yeah, you’re right. It’s late here and I’m nearly stoned on allergy and pain meds. Wasn’t thinking.
Current punishment allows for fine and\or jail time. If this law increases the punishment, what’s the point?
If this bill is legalizing illegals, then what point is there to increase penalties for illegal crossers? If this bill is signed as is, then there will be very few illegals who can’t get legalized. And they won’t come forward anyway. Those that are “caught” by ICE and Border Patrol, all they have to do is appeal and\or sue. and they are free to stay in the US. Meanwhile, they’re gone again.
This bill is just stupid.