The American Immigration Council (AIC), an affiliate of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, recently claimed that removing just one million illegal aliens (out of perhaps as many as fourteen million) would cost the federal government $88 billion a year. The clear message is that deporting illegal aliens is prohibitively expensive.
Jason Richwine of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) disagrees. He maintains that this estimate derives from the false assumption that deportation must involve mass roundups and large-scale detention facilities. An effective and more practical approach, says Richwine, is “attrition though enforcement.”
This policy would slowly but surely tighten immigration law enforcement. Richwine cites the following steps outlined by his colleague Jessica Vaughn: “Mandatory workplace verification of immigration status; measures to curb misuse of Social Security and IRS identification numbers; partnerships with state and local law enforcement officials; expanded entry-exit recording under US-VISIT; increased non-criminal removals; and state and local laws to discourage illegal settlement.”
As these relatively inexpensive would make living illegally in the U.S. more and more difficult, illegal aliens would self-deport themselves by returning to their homelands voluntarily. Their departure will provide us a fiscal benefit because, as Richwine notes, illegal aliens over their lifetimes consume more in benefits than they pay in taxes.
Read more at cis.org