No Matter Who Writes the Check, U.S. Taxpayers Bear the Burden of Illegal Immigration
Mass immigration advocates have what they think is a nifty new idea to deal with the soaring state and local cost of illegal immigration, now estimated to be $115 billion annually. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with reversing sanctuary policies, putting in place E-Verify, or otherwise restricting benefits to discourage future migrant flows. Instead, a group of Democrats has introduced legislation that would create a massive federal fund designed to reimburse the local cost of accommodating illegal immigration.
Representative Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) recently introduced the Destination Reception Assistance Act, respectively in the House and Senate. The program would provide “funding to local government entities and private nonprofit organizations to provide medium-term services to eligible arrivals who have been processed and released into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security.”
Who’s eligible? The bill addresses that by audaciously proposing a broad change to Section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1522). Under the legislation, local federal reimbursements would be extended to local governments and NGOs providing services to any an alien who was granted parole, any alien with a pending application for asylum, or even any alien who has been placed in removal proceedings.
Reimbursable services include:
- Housing transition, rental, and utility assistance programs;
- Medical and mental health care or insurance for such care;
- Child care, child care assistance programs, and out-of-school programming;
- Workforce development, job training, English language training, paid apprenticeships, work study, and loan programs;
- Local public transportation support;
- Interpretation and translation services;
- Legal services, particularly services supporting applications for work authorization, asylum, and other types of humanitarian relief;
- Case management and social work services, to provide support to individuals accessing and navigating available assistance and services;
- Coordinated relocation service; and
- Other eligible services, as determined by the Director.
House co-sponsor Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) says the bill is “innovative and would provide billions in new funding to assist cities and localities across the nation,” while Senate co-sponsor Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) promises that “the legislation will reduce costs for cities like Chicago.” The bill is supported by 38 advocacy groups including, not surprisingly, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Amnesty International USA.
The Destination Reception Assistance Act is unlikely to advance anytime soon given that no one is usually interested in voting on controversial issues just prior to an election. It bears watching however, not only because it’s emblematic of how determined the left is to continue financing their mass immigration agenda, but because it could reemerge post-election in the lame duck session, or in the next Congress.
In sum, open-border advocates want Uncle Sam — the poor fellow already crippled with $35 trillion of debt — to give handouts to state and local jurisdictions to compensate them for the handouts they’ve dispensed to illegal aliens…as if to make the costs disappear. Of course, those expenditures simply get passed on to the federal level of government, which is also funded by American taxpayers. To think otherwise, is sophistry.
And, of course, regardless of who pays, continuing to extend a honeypot of benefits to illegal aliens just perpetuates and exacerbates the problem. The Destination Reception Assistance Act is insulting to Americans who know that, and who understand they’re on the hook for every expenditure at every level of government.
Apologies to Margaret Thatcher for slightly revising her famous quote, but it seems, “The problem with mass immigration is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”