Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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Some people think $5 billion for a border wall is a bargain. Importantly, that proposal is only a down payment. The actual cost is likely $25 billion, with an additional $150 million to $750 million per year to maintain it.
Some cite a Wikipedia page claiming that 800,000 people were apprehended at the border last year. But according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, that number is 396,579 and includes migrants who sought out border patrol agents to turn themselves in to seek asylum.
A 2015 Drug Enforcement Report notes that the bulk of illegal drugs transported over the southern border pass through legitimate ports of entry — via passenger vehicles or tractor trailers containing hidden compartments or drugs commingled with legitimate goods.
According to the Cato Institute, no one who has crossed the southern border illegally from 1975 to 2017 has been responsible for a terror attack on US soil. And during a seven-month period ending March 31, 2018, only six migrants apprehended at the border were on a U.S. terror watch list.
A $25 billion border wall is unnecessary, and certainly is no bargain. The claimed “crisis” on the southern border isa politically manufactured one, not a real one. If funding for the wall is approved, it is foreseeable that the president will claim credit for a drop in illegal immigration that actually began in 2000 while Barack Obama was in office.
