Illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $113 billion per year so keeping them out pays for the wall. Merit based selection makes so much sense. Why should we invite people into this country who are illiterate, impoverished and who do not share American values?
The first leg of President Trump’s planned border wall will cost an exorbitant $24.5 million per mile, according to the 2018 budget he submitted Tuesday that details a massive shake-up in immigration policy.
Mr. Trump calls for a giant increase in detention beds to help end the catch-and-release policies of previous administrations, requests major infusions of cash for more border and interior agents to apprehend illegal immigrants, and proposes more prosecutors and judges to speed their cases along.
Also on tap is a boost in funding for E-Verify, the government’s voluntary system that allows businesses to check potential hires’ legal status. Mr. Trump says he wants the system to be mandatory for all U.S. businesses in three years.
But Mr. Trump has his eye on something even bigger, signaling that he wants to try to shift the country’s immigration system from one in which immigrants pick the U.S. to one in which the U.S. picks immigrants based on who can best help the country, without becoming a drain on public finances.
In his proposed budget, Mr. Trump says he is looking for ways to calculate the “net budgetary effects” of immigration programs and policy. “Once the net effect of immigration on the federal budget is more clearly illustrated, the American public can be better informed about options for improving policy outcomes and saving taxpayer resources,” the president said in the blueprint. “In that regard, the budget supports reforming the U.S. immigration system to encourage: merit-based admissions for legal immigrants, ending the entry of illegal immigrants, and a substantial reduction in refugees slotted for domestic resettlement.”