Last month, 251,487 illegal aliens were apprehended at the southern border. This is the highest monthly total on record. But that number is just the tip of the iceberg.
According to data from Customs and Border Protection, the number of undocumented immigrant crossings at the southwest border for fiscal year ending September 30, 2022 topped 2.76 million people, a million over the previous record. This is almost the population of the city of Chicago.
Imagine for a moment the cost of running a city of 2.76m residents. The infrastructure, the schools, the medical facilities, the roads…do you see the picture? And what is the budget required to run a city of that size? The FY 2022 budget for the city of Chicago is $4.9bn, Where are these funds derived? Taxes, for the most part.
We now have an influx of enough people whose needs are roughly equivalent to those of a city of that size. Yet, for the most part, they have no jobs and are dependent on welfare or other social programs for their lives – or, God forbid, crime! How can they support a budget of that size now or even 10 years from now?
But the problem is even greater. In August, FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) reported that since President Biden had taken office, more illegals have entered our country than the population of the entire country of Ireland. And this continues every month, month after month. How can this be sustained?
Immigration is a good thing when done correctly. There are procedures in place, and when laws are followed, immigrants can play an important role in our society. But even as these procedures are enforced at airports and ports around the country, they are completely ignored at the Southern border. This is not right.
No one is benefiting from the current situation except the drug cartels and criminal gangs. It is time to take control of the border and stop this crisis.