Starbuck
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And so when we are looking at, for example, the availability of jobs, does having people compete with a greater or a lesser supply of labor increase their chances?
If you believe in the free market, people will only immigrate to the US as long as the demand for labor persists. Looking at recent immigration trends, I'd say this is probably true.
And so when we are looking at, for example, the availability of jobs, does having people compete with a greater or a lesser supply of What? We spend the equivalent of a rounding error of Medicare Fraud on the Border Patrol.
First of all, if you were to actually include all expenditures for immigration and border protection the total would ring closer to $18,000,000,000 per fiscal year, which is coincidentally nearly double the entire operating budget for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Either way, simply comparing one massive quantity of wasted money to a larger quantity of wasted money does not really make the smaller one go away. Whether Medicare wastes $200 billon dollars per year or not, does not make wasting an additional $18 billion on border protection a good deal. Especially where the protection/ enforcement you're talking about would cost much more than $18 billion dollars per year.
:lol: I'm willing to spend 12 Bn to be able to perform one of the basic security functions of a state. Being able to secure our border is a non-negotiable. It's like having a defensive capability, or a police force. You pay for it.
Sure, just like you are going to pay for anything, but you should really evaluate the return on investment. Mathematically speaking, it just doesn't work out to a good deal.
Besides, citing our spending on defense [see offense] is outrageous and probably a poor talking point for any fiscal conservative.
Incidentally - "streamlining the process for legal immigration" is going to cost money .
Sure. So long as we can convince millions of latin americans to get on easily identified large vessels and transport themselves through a receiving center where we retain the right to send them right back.
....how do you propose we do that.
People are relatively simple.
As long as the United States has an economic opportunity for them, they are going to come here legally or otherwise. If it is easier, more beneficial and at all practical for them to enter the United States legally they will do exactly that. Ellis island was a perfect example of a functioning immigration system, where we convinced millions of immigrants to take their boats to a clearly defined immigration hub.
Keep in mind that our Atlantic coast is much larger [and at the time harder to enforce] than our land borders.