The silent but growing surge in immigration is crushing American taxpayers

The national security problems concerning the large number of refugees form the Middle East has been the top concern on the immigration front, but there are other growing concerns that have been overlooked by the media. A painstakingly detailed study from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) finds that our unprecedented record high levels of immigration cost Americans as much as $296 billion a year. However, the data from that study is several years old and doesn’t account for the recent surge of Central Americans and Cubans crossing the border, some of the poorest immigrant groups crossing the board.

Surge in Central Americans

In 2014, there was a lot of media coverage concerning the surge of Central American migrants across our southern border. After ebbing a bit in 2015, the flow is now on par with the highest levels we saw two years ago. The number of unaccompanied minors has increased by 50% since last year, and overall, more family units have crossed over during the first 11 months of this fiscal year than in 2014. Meanwhile, only four percent of the unaccompanied minors have been deported (as opposed to Mexico, which deports 90 percent of the Central American migrants). Further, 80 percent of the UACs are housed with other illegal alien families.

It’s also important to note that Obama plans to abuse the refugee program and designate a few thousand of these individuals from Latin America as refugees, making them eligible for welfare immediately. For the current fiscal year, roughly 1,500 from Latin America have been accepted as refugees, but Obama just announced he is raising the sub-cap of refugees for FY 2017 to 5,000.

The cost of hundreds of thousands of some of the most impoverished Central Americans on our social services, hospitals, and schools is astronomical, and not even quantified in the cost analysis in the NASEM study using 2013 data.

The Cuban Migration Fleecing America

The other big story under the radar is the record number of Cubans crossing over our border — both by land in Texas and by sea in south Florida. During FY 2015, roughly 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S., double the level of the previous year. According to Pew, 46,635 Cubans have crossed over just in the first 10 months of this fiscal year alone. As we’ve noted before, due to the outdated Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 (and a subsequent act in 1976), any Cuban who finds his way to our shores is essentially granted a green card immediately. And unlike other immigrants, they are eligible for welfare from day one.

This dynamic has created an entire scam industry whereby some Cubans are able to come here without consent, collect welfare, and return home while continuing to receive payments from U.S. taxpayers.  It represents one of the most appalling violations of a nation’s sovereignty. And the trajectory is getting worse with tens of thousands of Cubans flooding South and Central America en route to our southern border. Raul Castro is orchestrating this migration as a leverage tool against Obama, who has shown no floor to the degree he will genuflect before the brutal dictator.

It’s gotten so bad that even Latin American countries are now asking that we stop our mindless policy of offering free shelter to anyone from Cuba who steps on our shore. Yet, instead of addressing the root of the problem, the Obama administration is fostering this invasion by pledging $1 million to Costa Rico in order for them to airlift the Cubans to our border!

This is a no-brainer winning issue for Republicans to fight in the upcoming budget bill (along with many other issues) but few members aside from Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. (B, 83%) are demanding action.

From the colonial times through the crafting of our modern immigration laws, the overarching and universal principle behind our immigration system was the notion that immigrants  must never become a public charge. As late as 1993, Harry Reid introduced legislation excluding all legal immigrants from admission who “cannot demonstrably support themselves without public or private assistance.” In his speech introducing the bill and railing against illegal immigration, Reid expressed the following concern about our legal immigration system:

Our immigration levels have only increased since 1993. Quite dramatically, actually.

Is it so hard for Republicans to stand on the ground plowed by Harry Reid in the ‘90s concerning an issue that would garner a super-majority of support from American voters? Then again, if our grave security concerns are not reason enough for the political class to stand for sovereignty, why would they care about wasted taxpayer funds?

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