By Rick Oltman, June 1, 2018
The taxpayer cost for caring for “unaccompanied minors” last year neared $1.5 billion for 41,000 illegal alien minors housed by Health and Human Services. That comes to about $700 a day.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement’s statement says, “When a child who is not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian is apprehended by immigration authorities, the child is transferred to the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in HHS’ Administration for Children and Families. HHS’ primary legal authority is to temporarily house, feed, provide medical care and then safely release UAC to sponsors (usually family members), while they await immigration proceedings.”
However temporary, everything is paid for by the taxpayer.
It isn’t just the cost of taking care of children. The increase in the number of Unaccompanied (illegal) Alien Children since 2014 has fueled the rise in MS-13 violence. Operation Matador on Long Island arrested 475 gang members over the past year, 99 entering our country as “unaccompanied minors.”
“Operation Matador sends a clear message to violent street gangs that there are consequences for their actions. Since this operation began last year (2017), ‘we have seen a decrease in the amount of violent crime directly related to MS-13 and other transnational gangs,’ said ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan.” A decrease because enforcement sends a deterrent message.
Add the cost of holding someone in a federal prison (about $85 a day).
All the cost of housing unaccompanied children and the violence that our communities experience when they end up in gangs, can be averted if we have strong border security and a loud deterrent message.
The reason the influx of “children” began in 2014 was that they were basically welcomed by the Obama Administration. No deterrent message was ever uttered.
The U.S. Department of Justice reported in June 2014 that they would spend $2 million to fund around 100 lawyers and paralegals provided to the unaccompanied children. It was estimated that 60,000 illegal alien minors would cross our border in 2014.
Then U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, “We’re taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society”.
That was not a deterrent message. That was a warm welcome mat for illegal aliens, which encouraged many more to come when they saw it reported in the press.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. [Winston Churchill.]
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