From The Price Tag for Immigration Enforcement, the crackdown on immigrants is only going to get more expensive next year. The Department of Homeland Security is asking for a 19% increase for “immigratin enforcement and border control for 2009”. Just this year, the budgets for Customs and Border Protection (CBP)and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were 80% larger than the EPA budget and $4 billion more than the State Department. The FY2008 State Department budget was a little over $10 billion. The whole mess is detailed in Paying the Price of the Immigration Crackdown. Wouldn’t it be less expensive to reform the broken immigration system we have now?
The immigration enforcement and border security programs of Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense are only marginally related to enhancing the safety and security of Americans. Our immigration policy today responds to the forces of fear and hate unleashed by the Bush administration with its ill-begotten war on terrorism.