The United States always has, and I believe always will, welcome immigrants. However, as the fallout from the current situation at our southern border reminds us, the American people desire a system of immigration that is organized and legal, as opposed to the current chaos.
The only way this can be achieved is when our borders are secure, and our laws are enforced. According to the American Immigration Council, from the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003 to January 2021, the U.S. spent over $333 billion on efforts to secure our borders and enforce our laws. Most of this money funded two DHS agencies: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). CBP works to control the border between U.S. ports of entry, while ICE works to “apprehend noncitizens in the interior of the country, detain those undergoing removal proceedings, and deport those ordered removed.”
Before we look more deeply into the costs of our border and immigration policy, let’s look at some of the border activity during the two most recent administrations. According to the CBP website, Border Patrol encountered 1,979,210 people attempting to enter the country during the years that Donald Trump was in office. Although Joe Biden still has almost a year to go in his term, total encounters so far during his presidency are 9,155,458. This massive number is more than four times that of his predecessor.
When reviewing the numbers above, one may conclude that perhaps reduced agency budgets and/or fewer staff could have something to do with the differences in the increased activity at our borders. Such a conclusion would be wrong. According to the DHS website, the budgets for CPB and ICE have mostly increased, with the exception of a slight dip in a couple of years. During Trump’s years in office, the combined budgets of these agencies were: FY17 - $21.04 billion, FY18 -$23.76 billion, FY19 - $25.16 billion, FY20 - $24.68 billion. In Biden’s first year, FY21, the figure was $24.58 billion, followed by $26.72 billion in FY22, and $29.84 billion in FY23. Although the final budget has not been passed for this year, the president’s FY24 budget request for these agencies is just over $28 billion. On the staffing front, DHS reports show that the combined staffing of these agencies in 2017 was 81,455, and 87,877 at the beginning of 2024.
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If someone were to review these numbers without background and context, they would be puzzled as to why so many more people are now flooding into our country. According to polls, a majority of U.S. citizens, regardless of party affiliation, hold the Biden administration responsible. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the president is now trying to blame Republicans for the border problems over the recent failure of a Senate “border bill,” which was less about the border than it was about foreign aid to Ukraine. It remains to be seen whether voters will buy what the president is trying to sell.
Besides the direct costs to defend the border through CBP and ICE, there are other costs. A November 2023 report released by Congressman Mark Green, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, estimated that the real costs of illegal immigration could run as high as $451 billion per year. These estimates are not limited to federal tax expenditures. They are based on all possible costs, including health care, law enforcement (including costs border states incur for tactical border enforcement), education, housing/shelter, costs to private citizens who live along the southern border, and other costs.
Given the data above, it is clear that something happened between the time Trump left office and Biden took office, because millions more people headed to our southern border. The Heritage Foundation concluded that the current situation is merely the result of a vision that President Biden articulated during the 2020 campaign. The Heritage take: “The fact is that Biden campaigned for president promising an array of enticements for people to break our laws to enter this country. He promised amnesty for those already here, taxpayer-provided health care, work permits, support for sanctuary cities, and a cessation of deportations.”
Although reasonable people can disagree as to whether Heritage is correct, Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty seems to agree with the notion that this is intentional. He believes the current border situation is about the ability of people who are not U.S. citizens to influence the balance of political power in the United States. In January 2024, in response to a New York Congresswoman’s call for more illegal immigration in her district because she “needs more people in her district for redistricting purposes,” Hagerty joined Senate colleagues in introducing a bill that would make sure that only U.S. citizens are counted in the census for the purposes of apportioning congressional districts. Consequently, because of the way our system works, this would also ensure that only citizens are counted for the purposes of presidential Electoral College votes.
There are many reasons to be concerned about the situation at our southern border; however, the impact on our budget, though often overlooked, is among the top of these reasons. Every day, more experts are correctly referring to our government’s current financial path as unsustainable. If we don’t wake up and take action, both Social Security and Medicare will face severe cuts within 10 years. This will negatively impact every American, not just the elderly. For the sake of our financial future, a good step toward fiscal sanity should include getting our border under control. As the earlier referenced House report reminds us, there are almost a half-trillion reasons to immediately solve this problem.
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