In March, 2018 President Trump surveyed wall prototypes as part of his efforts to pressure lawmakers to fund building a colossal wall on our southern border. The President continues to keep immigration in the forefront of the news and lobby for funding the border wall which is estimated to cost as much as $70 billion[1] project. In May, 2018 the zero tolerance policy began separating children from their parents who crossed into the country illegally. As I look at the picture of the President standing in front of an enormous wall over 3 times his height, I ask myself, what are we so afraid of? We are told that this issue is so acute that we should increase spending dramatically and divert nearly 2 percent of the budget to it. The administration says the danger is so great that we need to lock up families behind chain link fences, deport them without due process, and separate the children as part of the prosecution process as the President stated on June 19th[2]. But the facts do not support this conclusion.
Although the number of undocumented immigrants increased substantially between 1980 and 2007, the great recession brought that trend to an end. Since 2007 we have actually experienced a reduction in the number of undocumented immigrants in this country. Currently there are 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the country, down from the high of 12.2 million in 2007[3].
Undocumented immigrants commit less crime than those who were born here. The CATO Institute estimates that the incarceration rate for illegal immigrants is lower than the rate for the native born population. They found that there were an estimated 2,007,502 natives, 122,939 illegal immigrants, and 63,994 legal immigrants incarcerated in 2014. The incarceration rate was 1.53 percent for natives, 0.85 percent for illegal immigrants, and 0.47 percent for legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives[4].
Most undocumented immigrants work. In fact, their labor force participation rate is substantially higher than native workers. Eight million undocumented immigrants out of the 11.3 million living in the U.S. are in the labor force yielding a 71 percent labor force participation rate with an estimated 5-percent unemployment rate. In contrast, as of February 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the overall U.S. labor force participation rate is 63 percent[5].
Undocumented immigrants pay taxes but this may be offset by the cost of the social services they use. On average, the nation’s undocumented immigrants pay 8 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes every year[6]. However, after reviewing the a immigrants impose a small net cost on state and local budgets[7]. However, after reviewing the available estimates, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds unauthorized immigrants impose a small net cost on state and local budgets[7]. CBO concluded that the data were too weak to quantify the estimate. Most likely, we are considering spending more on the wall than the costs associated with undocumented immigrants. CBO concluded that the data were too weak to quantify the estimate. Most likely, we are considering spending more on the wall than the costs associated with undocumented immigrants.
By playing to nationalism and fear, President Trump has convinced a substantial share of Americans that we need a wall, must intern families, and ignore due process to be safe . And, this is what I am so afraid of.
- [1] U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAG) Minority Staff Report on the Southern Boarder Wall, April 2017
- [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44538110https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44538110 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada
- [3] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
- https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
- [4] https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/immigration_brief-1.pdf
- [5] https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
- [6] https://itep.org/immigration/
- [7] https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/110th-congress-2007-2008/reports/12-6-immigration.pdf