Border Wall Could Pay for Itself

[Dark_Grey]

The Cost of a Border Wall vs. the Cost of Illegal Immigration

If you have the time, this is worth a read.

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The findings of this analysis show that if a border wall stopped a small fraction of the illegal immigrants who are expected to come in the next decade, the fiscal savings from having fewer illegal immigrants in the country would be sufficient to cover the costs of the wall. This analysis takes the likely education level of illegal border-crossers and applies fiscal estimates developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) for immigrants by education level. NAS calculates the future fiscal balance immigrants create — taxes paid minus costs. NAS reports fiscal balances as "net present values", which places a lower value on future expenditures than on current expenditures.

Based on the NAS data, illegal border-crossers create an average fiscal burden of approximately $74,722 during their lifetimes, excluding any costs for their U.S.-born children. If a border wall stopped between 160,000 and 200,000 illegal crossers — 9 to 12 percent of those expected to successfully cross in the next decade — the fiscal savings would equal the $12 to $15 billion cost of the wall.

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Important Caveats and Observations About These Estimates

• In addition to crossing the border surreptitiously, aliens join the illegal population primarily by overstaying a temporary visa. A southern border wall would not address this part of the illegal flow.
• A large share of the net fiscal cost of illegal immigrants is at the state and local level, not the federal level. The costs of building the wall will be borne by the federal government.
• To create its long-term fiscal estimates for immigrants by education level, the NAS uses the concept of "net present value" (NPV). This concept, which is commonly used by economists, has the effect of reducing the size of the net fiscal drain that unskilled immigrants will create in the future. The NAS does this because costs or benefits years from now are valued less in economics relative to more immediate costs. But this means the actual net lifetime fiscal cost of illegal border-crossers, given their education levels, is possibly $140,000 to $150,000 each in their lifetimes if the NPV concept is not used.⁴

Even with conservative numbers used in the study, stopping a mere 10% of illegal immigration would pay for the entire wall. The rest is money well saved.

About the Center for Immigration Studies:

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The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization. Since our founding in 1985, we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.

 

[Likely Guy]

13 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

About the Center for Immigration Studies:

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization. Since our founding in 1985, we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is a conservative^[2] non-profit research organization "that favors far lower immigration numbers and produces research to further those views."^[3] It was started as a spin-off from Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 1985.^[4] The Center's self-described mission is to "provid[e] immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States."^[5]

Reports published by the CIS have been widely deemed misleading and riddled with basic errors by scholars on immigration; think tanks from across the ideological and political spectrum; media of all stripes; several leading nonpartisan immigration-research organizations; and by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The organization has also drawn criticism for its financial and intellectual ties to extremist racists.^[6][7][8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Immigration_Studies

[Farmer77]

14 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

The Cost of a Border Wall vs. the Cost of Illegal Immigration

If you have the time, this is worth a read.

Even with conservative numbers used in the study, stopping a mere 10% of illegal immigration would pay for the entire wall. The rest is money well saved.

About the Center for Immigration Studies:

 

  FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA are all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. As the first article in this report shows, Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a "neo-Nazi organization." He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were outbreeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.

The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance 

IDK about the veracity of the claims but a quick google search pulls up a ton of references to the founder of the Center for Immigration Studies being a racist and  the article I just linked to even says he was a fan of eugenics. 

[Darkenpath25]

I don't care who pays for it as long as it goes up . Our country is being ran over with illegals . If they want citizenship

make them prove they want to be and be here to live and prosper not to live here to send money back to their countries . 

Be an American or stay out !

[Dark_Grey]

9 minutes ago, Likely Guy said:

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is a conservative^[2] non-profit research organization "that favors far lower immigration numbers and produces research to further those views."^[3] It was started as a spin-off from Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 1985.^[4] The Center's self-described mission is to "provid[e] immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States."^[5]

Reports published by the CIS have been widely deemed misleading and riddled with basic errors by scholars on immigration; think tanks from across the ideological and political spectrum; media of all stripes; several leading nonpartisan immigration-research organizations; and by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The organization has also drawn criticism for its financial and intellectual ties to extremist racists.^[6][7][8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Immigration_Studies

I read through the criticism references, not impressed.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
http://www.citylab.com/work/

Whoever wrote the article on Wiki seems to have quite the agenda. Those articles referenced should have solid arguments that CIS is racist or at least completely bogus but the referenced material are just opinion pieces from small-time papers.

The reason I bothered to post the study was because it relies on data collected from accredited institutions like the "National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine". I could care less what the agenda of CIS is, if there is one. All I care about is the numbers - will the wall pay for itself?

[Farmer77]

Just now, Dark_Grey said:

I read through the criticism references, not impressed.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
http://www.citylab.com/work/

Whoever wrote the article on Wiki seems to have quite the agenda. Those articles referenced should have solid arguments that CIS is racist or at least completely bogus but the referenced material are just opinion pieces from small-time papers.

The reason I bothered to post the study was because it relies on data collected from accredited institutions like the "National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine". I could care less what the agenda of CIS is, if there is one. All I care about is the numbers - will the wall pay for itself?

Fair enough 

[Dark_Grey]

11 minutes ago, Farmer77 said:

 IDK about the veracity of the claims but a quick google search pulls up a ton of references to the founder of the Center for Immigration Studies being a racist and  the article I just linked to even says he was a fan of eugenics. 

Let's be honest: anyone who opposes immigration is a racist these days. I would also question the claims but I'm not about to spend all bloody night playing detective...I just want to prove or disprove CIS claim about the wall

[Likely Guy]

12 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

Let's be honest: anyone who opposes immigration is a racist these days. I would also question the claims but I'm not about to spend all bloody night playing detective...I just want to prove or disprove CIS claim about the wall

CIS's non-partisan or partisan status is central to the issue. If they are partisan then I wouldn't trust their numbers.

[Dark_Grey]

3 minutes ago, Likely Guy said:

CIS's non-partisan or partisan status is central to the issue. If they are partisan then I wouldn't trust their numbers.

Do you trust the "National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine"? Their numbers are integral to determining the plausibility of CIS claim. They estimated the cost of illegal immigrants at a Federal level.

[Sweetpumper]

As long as it goes up, it doesn't matter.

[Likely Guy]

2 minutes ago, Sweetpumper said:

As long as it goes up, it doesn't matter.

Even if it's fully tax payer funded?

4 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

Do you trust the "National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine"? Their numbers are integral to determining the plausibility of CIS claim. They estimated the cost of illegal immigrants at a Federal level.

Well, the Devil can quote scripture to get his point across. This is what the Cato Institute has to say about CIS:

Center for Immigration Studies Report Exaggerates Immigrant Welfare Use

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a new report this morning on immigrant welfare use. CIS found that immigrants use far more welfare than natives do. CIS’ methodology, parts of which are suspect, is what produced this result – as we’ve pointed out to CIS multiple times. They also omitted a lot of information that would make for a better comparison between immigrants and natives. Simply put, the CIS study does not compare apples to apples but rather apples to elephants.

https://www.cato.org/blog/center-immigration-studies-exaggerates-immigrant-welfare-use

The Cato Institute is a Libertarian institute funded by the Koch brothers.