Commentary
FUNDING CENTRAL AMERICA – Last month, while announcing a plan to provide $4 billion in aid to the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the White House said it was fine-tuning, and sharply limiting how much money will go directly to the governments.
Like previous administrations, efforts continue to weed out corruption in the seats of government, while also contributing to agencies providing health and human services.
Determining how much funding is going to each of the countries is difficult to determine as funds are committed not only by the U.S. Agency for International Development, but also the Department of Agriculture, the State Department and the Federal Trade Commission.
On Monday, the Federation for American Immigration Reform put the five-year price tag for welcoming thousands of refugees and asylum seekers at $8.8 billion in federal and state costs, or nearly $80,000 per refugee.
On a yearly average, that’s about $1.8 billion, or $15,000 per refugee.
Last year, the Center for Immigration Studies reported the average refugee cost at around $60,000 in net present value over his or her lifetime, with adult refugees costing upwards of $133,000.
The Center states that these costs are due mainly to the low levels of education possessed by refugees upon their arrival. Referring to a 2016 survey, one in three refugees between the ages of 25 and 64 arrived in the U.S. with no education beyond the sixth grade; 53 percent lacked a high school diploma.
Given their low education levels, most refugees will not possess the earning power necessary to become net fiscal contributors, which explains why President Trump repeatedly referred to the need to welcome immigrants with merit.
With those facts in mind, consider the following unbelievable conclusion the left-leaning Brookings Institute arrived at in its report, “The Costs and Benefits of Immigration”:
“In contrast to critics who worry that immigrants take American jobs and depress American wages, considerable research suggests that immigrants contribute to the vibrancy of American economic development and the richness of its cultural life. They start new businesses, patent novel ideas, and create jobs
“When one strips away the emotion and looks at the facts, the benefits of new arrivals to American innovation and entrepreneurship are abundant and easy to see. The costs immigrants impose are not zero, but those side-effects pale in comparison to the contributions arising from the immigrant brain gain.”
HERE’S SOMETHING TO PONDER – As the Biden administration addresses the same corruption and failed promises past administrations have experienced in those Central American countries, perhaps it’s time to put America first.
Our diplomatic efforts to persuade their officials to stop the flow of individuals to our southern border have obviously failed.
Why not debit their aid account by a nominal charge of say $15,000 for ages 15 and under, and $30,000 for those 16 and over? That just might get their attention.
FILLING IN THE GAPS in the border wall along our southern border that was stopped when President Biden took office may soon be approved, according to the Washington Times. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been meeting with individuals of the Border Patrol to determine how to finish the wall.
Even the New York Times’ leftist columnist Bret Stephens wrote that “a well-built wall should still be a central part of an overall immigration fix.”
Writing of the 70 percent jump over February’s numbers, the highest level in 15 years, Stephens added, “The deterrent is needed now.
Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.
