Obama Administration Doles Out $1.7 Billion to Illegal Immigrants
by Jose Nino
A recent congressional study revealed that Obama’s November amnesty plan will cost taxpayers $1.7 billion over a period of 10 years. This news came two days after high-ranking Republicans where able to fend off opposition to a 2015 budget bill that will fund Obama’s unpopular amnesty plan for approximately 5 million illegal immigrants.
Immigration has always been a hot-button issue in the US that evokes some of the strongest emotions on both sides of congress. Filled with all sorts race-baiting, demagoguery, and protectionist rhetoric, the national immigration debate has been anything but fruitful. Logically, the end result has been a patchwork immigration policy that ignores the more fundamental issues at hand.
For starters, the $1.7 billion being doled out is nothing more than a populist scheme to line up support for the Democrats among immigrants and their already naturalized kinsmen. Democrats will portray themselves, as the heroes of immigrants, while Republicans and other opponents of this plan will be labeled as “racist” and “backwards” for their opposition of said plan. The best way to ensure the never-ending expansion of the State is to buy off certain constituencies and turn them into reliable voting blocs.
Ultimately, no one, whether they be immigrants or American citizens, should receive government subsidies or tax-payer funded services while others foot the bill. The US is already on a fiscal house of cards with unsustainable programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid putting it on the brink of fiscal collapse. Theirs is no need to add this amnesty program that is projected to cost over $2 trillion during the next five decades, according to the Heritage Foundation’s budget analyst Robert Rector.
That being said, conservative alternatives to the immigration dilemma are not much better. There is a particular fetish on the right with “Rule of Law” that puts laws, no matter how unjust and irrational they are, on a pedestal. These are a rather ironic set of beliefs espoused by the supposed “paladins” of the free market. Let’s face it, immigration is a dynamic that is here to stay and is as free market as it gets.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the free movement of people from country to country. This has been a fixture of mankind since time immemorial. It’s only when the State comes into the equation and starts subsidizing immigrants, that immigration becomes a problem. However, the welfare state should not exist in first place to begin with, a totally different topic.
The solution to this problem is to cut the red tape in the entire immigration process. I myself am a legal immigrant originally from Venezuela. After going through the entire immigration process, I could see why there is such a strong incentive to go the illegal route. The process is quite simply a byzantine maze of bureaucratic hoops and hurdles.
This is the 21st century, where people enjoy fast-paced services provided by the marketplace. It’s time to reduce the red tape and introduce more free-market incentives in the immigration process. This does not mean that immigrants can just walk into any country without signing the guest book. At the same time, let’s not make this process cost prohibitive. The US story is all about embracing immigrants from all sorts of backgrounds —political exiles, skilled immigrants, rags to riches types, etc— and letting them contribute to the economical and cultural landscape of the country.
It’s rather unfortunate, how both sides of the aisle only look to the State to solve this problem. One side, wants to subsidize these immigrants, while the other side not only wants to continue criminalizing this inherently peaceful behavior, but also wants to erect a costly fence to “rectify” this crisis.
Let’s stop thinking in top-down terms and embrace free market solutions for once.