A Center for Immigration Studies analysis reports that even if the proposed border wall between the US and Mexico prevents a small fraction of the anticipated amount of illegal immigrants predicted over the next few years, the government budget savings from having fewer illegal immigrants to take care of would be enough to cover the costs of the wall.
This analysis takes the likely education level of illegal border-crossers and applies fiscal estimates developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) for immigrants by education level. NAS calculates the future fiscal balance immigrants create — taxes paid minus costs. NAS reports fiscal balances as “net present values”, which places a lower value on future expenditures than on current expenditures
Based on the NAS data, Illegal Immigrants criminally trespassing aliens cost a the government approximately $74,722 during their lifetimes (not counting the costs of any kids the trespassers give birth to in the US)
Now if the proposed border wall stopped between 160,000 and 200,000 people criminally trespassing (which represents only 9% to 12% of the projected amount over the next ten years), the savings to the government would equal $12 to $15 billion, in the first decade. The entire $18 billion cost would be covered in 12-15 years.
Newly released research by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) done for the Department of Homeland Security indicates that 170,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border successfully without going through a port of entry in 2015. While a significant decline in crossings from a decade ago, it still means that there may be 1.7 million successful crossings in the next decade. If a wall stopped just 9 to 12 percent of these crossings it would pay for itself.
If a wall stopped half of those expected to successfully enter illegally without going through a port of entry at the southern border over the next 10 years, it would save taxpayers nearly $64 billion — several times the wall’s cost.
Keep in mind a significant portion of the illegal immigrants do not enter the country over the border by in the country because they over-stayed their visa. In 2015, 480,000 foreign nationals came into this country and over-stayed their visa according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The wall cannot address visa overstays.
Read the rest at: Mexico WILL Pay
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