BORDER and IMMIGRATION
The democrats have been slow to come around on this one. It’s easy to sit in Massachusetts and preach the virtue of sanctuary and immigration and open borders while letting the southern states deal with the problem. A few busloads of immigrants changed New York’s tune.
We have about 750 miles of wall, fence, or other physical barriers, to include the mammoth 87 miles of wall built during the Trump administration. Mexico still hasn’t paid for it.
But the border is 2,000 miles long. And if you show me a 10 foot wall, I’ll show you a 12 foot ladder.
The expense of useless walls that will need more maintenance than Mexico will pay for are an idiot’s solution to a bigger problem. A huge percentage of immigrants simply fly into the US and just overstay their visas. Pro tip: Airplanes can fly over walls.
The border can be enforced at ground level by technological means currently being tested and used without the need of a wall or fence.
We also need to tighten our policies at border stations to include a complete revision of our asylum policies.
Each year, our southern border allows in over 300 million people. The population of the US is 342 million. So obviously, there’s a lot of back and forth we’re dealing with, leaving our actual illegal immigrant population at an estimated 12 million. They don’t typically qualify for government assistance and work under the table or at low paying jobs with false papers. Which means they are paying taxes and even into social security and will never see or benefit from that money. An estimated $2 billion a year in Uncle Sugar’s pocket.
Illegal immigration costs money and we should continue to tighten our border, but we need to be ready for how expensive the solution will be. And the fact that Mexico is never going to cut us a check for it.