Wyatt earp
Diamond Member
- Apr 21, 2012
- 69,975
- 16,383
- 2,180
You have to be kidding me hey politico THEY ARE CRIMINALS ...we are a nation of laws you numb nuts..
The ICE raids aren’t just wrong – they’re expensive
The ICE raids aren’t just wrong – they’re expensive
Does it make sense to spend $50,000 locking up someone for supporting her family?
This week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided seven Mississippi food processing plants and arrested 680 workers for immigration violations. The moral cost of these raids to our shared humanity is apparent in stories like that of a tearful 13-year-old boy waving goodbye to his mother or an 11-year old girl pleading for her father’s release. But some people might feel differently, believing such scenes are just the cost of enforcing our immigration laws. If that’s you, I urge you to weigh another cost instead: the sheer financial expense of such cruelty.
First, there’s lost income. ICE was created in 2003 to “protect national security and public safety after 9/11,” but this week’s raids were not about security or safety or terrorism. They targeted immigrants while they worked to support their families and our economy. Many of the arrested individuals now leave behind jobs that won’t be filled and children and spouses who now live without a family member and their associated income. Their communities and local businesses will suffer down the line. And state and local governments will lose the associated tax revenues; undocumented workers pay an estimated $12 billion a year in taxes.
Then there are the costs of enforcement and detention. ICE Acting Director Matt Albence admitted that the raids required a yearlong investigation and 600 agents to execute. The 680 arrested individuals now languish in detention facilities. According to ICE, the average daily cost of detaining one person is $134. Some estimates place the cost at closer to $200 per day. Given this administration’s immigration policies, from family separation to zero tolerance to mass raids, the number of immigrants in detention is rapidly expanding, not retracting. For every person who leaves detention, another replaces them, if not two. Even using ICE’s conservative figure of $134, the cost of keeping one immigrant in detention is almost $50,000 per year. The detention expense alone for the group detained on Wednesday is approximately $100,000 a day, $3 million per month, and $36 million a year. Given that more raids are coming, these costs are only going to go up.
The ICE raids aren’t just wrong – they’re expensive
The ICE raids aren’t just wrong – they’re expensive
Does it make sense to spend $50,000 locking up someone for supporting her family?
This week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided seven Mississippi food processing plants and arrested 680 workers for immigration violations. The moral cost of these raids to our shared humanity is apparent in stories like that of a tearful 13-year-old boy waving goodbye to his mother or an 11-year old girl pleading for her father’s release. But some people might feel differently, believing such scenes are just the cost of enforcing our immigration laws. If that’s you, I urge you to weigh another cost instead: the sheer financial expense of such cruelty.
First, there’s lost income. ICE was created in 2003 to “protect national security and public safety after 9/11,” but this week’s raids were not about security or safety or terrorism. They targeted immigrants while they worked to support their families and our economy. Many of the arrested individuals now leave behind jobs that won’t be filled and children and spouses who now live without a family member and their associated income. Their communities and local businesses will suffer down the line. And state and local governments will lose the associated tax revenues; undocumented workers pay an estimated $12 billion a year in taxes.
Then there are the costs of enforcement and detention. ICE Acting Director Matt Albence admitted that the raids required a yearlong investigation and 600 agents to execute. The 680 arrested individuals now languish in detention facilities. According to ICE, the average daily cost of detaining one person is $134. Some estimates place the cost at closer to $200 per day. Given this administration’s immigration policies, from family separation to zero tolerance to mass raids, the number of immigrants in detention is rapidly expanding, not retracting. For every person who leaves detention, another replaces them, if not two. Even using ICE’s conservative figure of $134, the cost of keeping one immigrant in detention is almost $50,000 per year. The detention expense alone for the group detained on Wednesday is approximately $100,000 a day, $3 million per month, and $36 million a year. Given that more raids are coming, these costs are only going to go up.
