Costs of an Immigration crackdown

Andres Oppenheimer at the Miami Herald writes-

Third, massive deportations of hard-working people would not only be morally questionable, but socially and economically insane.

There are an estimated 3.1 million children born in the United States whose parents do not have legal immigration papers, according to the Pew Research Center. These children are U.S. citizens. Their parents -- who came here in hopes of a better future -- would not take them back to a life of poverty in their home countries. Are you proposing giant government-paid orphanages? Massive and expensive foster care?

And how would this country pay for deporting the undocumented? According to the Center for American Progress, deportation would conservatively cost $206 billion over the next five years. That's more than six times the $34.2 billion Department of Homeland Security budget for last year.

Fourth, undocumented workers nowadays fill about 1.4 million jobs in the construction industry, 1.2 million jobs in the leisure and hospitality industries, and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the agriculture industry. If they are deported, who will take their place?

If there were enough U.S. citizens willing to take up those jobs for higher wages -- the favorite argument of hyperventilating fearmongers on cable television -- American consumers would have to pay much more for housing, eating out at a restaurant, or buying food at a supermarket.

The illegal aliens parents of the US born children made bad mistakes in judgment. They getting punished for it I see as upholding the law. That said, to deport these parents is going to be very costly.(Mr. Oppenheimer is wrong in assuming all the children would have to be taken care of by the state. Many illegals have legal relatives here. The MSM has been good at pointing that out, WHEN they want to.

The financial cost to deport all illegals would be enormous Has anyone in the deport all the illegals crowd discussed the economic effect will have?(How about with low unemployment in the US, how will the jobs held by illegals be filled?) Both the cost to taxpayers and through the effect the deportation will have on certain businesses, meaning higher prices for goods and services. What if anything is the US gaining? I just see more money being taken out of US taxpayer pockets. If that's good for the country, we might as well raise taxes to eliminate the deficit while we're at it and finance the war on terrorism properly. At least few people would argue those aren't good reasons to take money from the US public.

This nation allowed 12 million illegals to enter. Why is it only now people feel a dire need to deal with the issue?

Hat tip- Alex at Stuck on the Palmetto
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