In less than two weeks, the nation will observe Labor Day. Illegal aliens plan to intrude on Americans’ end of summer ritual and launch another round of demonstrations to press their demand for imagined “immigrant rights” (and here).
They have their work cut out for them. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s new report estimates the cost of the Senate’s so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” is a whopping $126 billion. And that's just for the first ten years.
Fortunately, House Republicans feel American taxpayers’ pain. House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, whose legislation triggered the march of the illegals, said in a statement:
We are now just beginning to see a glimpse of the staggering burden on American taxpayers the Reid-Kennedy immigration legislation contains. Twenty-four-and-a-half billion dollars for the earned income and child tax credits. Medicaid costs of $11.7 billion. Social Security costs of $5.2 billion. Medicare costs of $3.7 billion. Food stamps costs of $2.4 billion. The list goes on and on. This new social spending -- in the hundreds of billions of dollars later on -- will all be paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Additionally, this CBO report actually underestimates the Reid-Kennedy costs because the millions of illegal immigrants provided amnesty will not become citizens and thus, eligible for all social benefit programs, until after the 10-year time frame reviewed by CBO.
Providing a massive amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants -- over half of whom have an educational level of a high school degree or less -- is unfair, unwise and unaffordable. It's unfair to the millions of people playing by the rules, waiting patiently in line, trying to immigrate legally. It's unwise because it sends a message that the U.S. will condone, and in many ways, reward illegal immigration. And, the Reid-Kennedy amnesty is unaffordable because of the hundreds of billions of dollars in costs that will be shouldered by hard-working American taxpayers.
