Agreed. Illegal immigration costs the country trillions of dollars over the long run.
We don't even need Mexico to pay for the wall because the wall will pay for itself. I think the shutdown has cost the country more than the $5 billion Trump wants for the wall.
I don't think that's so clear. According to the GAO, the net cost to American governments collectively (tax receipts- services used) is somewhere between 2 and 20 billion dollars, depending on the assumptions of the source
1. But according to the Texas comptroller the undocumented population of Texas (about 1/10th of the nations total) contributed 17.7 billion dollars to the states GDP through the private sector
2. So we might estimate that nation-wide, the contribution to the private sector is about 170 billion dollars. Meaning that the undocumented immigrants make America a 150 billion dollar profit.
One thing I've noticed from the left is that they always seem to assume that building a wall means all of the other enforcement mechanisms go away. That's illogical. The wall doesn't solve everything by itself, but it's just one important piece of the border security and immigration enforcement pie.
The source I remember on this I can't find, but here's the perspective of the rest of us on the wall:
You can sort any given mile of US border into one of four categories: Walled and Staffed (there are BP agents there 24-7), Walled but Not Staffed, Not Walled but Staffed, Not Walled or Staffed.
Successful border crossings (movement across the border without arrest or being turned back) occur with basically the same frequency at Walled and Staffed and Not Walled but Staffed locations. This can be attributed to the increased pressure at the locations that have been WaS, which tend to be near cities or major border crossings.
Successful border crossings also occur similar (much lower) frequency at locations that are WNS and NWNS. The lower frequency is related to the fact that these locations tend to be more remote, more difficult to traverse, and more dangerous.
The fact that there is no notable difference between the presence or absence of a wall without staffing can be attributed to the fact that without an active BP presence, it is not particularly risky to take the time to thwart any inhibiting structure: Either tunneling under it, bridging over it, or breaking through it.
So in the absence of guards, a wall makes no difference. We can suppose that the wall makes some difference at the locations barriers already exist, but only due to the presence of BP guards.
The BP itself reports that they are
struggling failing to maintain the current number of guards
3, with the greatest attrition in exactly the locations that Trump wants to expand the border into. Increasing the BP presence into these areas will be more expensive, per worker, than current staffing needs. Which creates the impression that we're talking about increasing the number of miles of Walls Without Staffing, and as mentioned above, those miles of barrier aren't useful at discouraging illegal immigration.
The place that liberals want to see immigration enforcement expanded is at the source: The companies that use, and the criminal organizations that transport, undocumented immigrants and smuggled goods into the country. And those aren't jobs for Border Patrol, those are jobs for the FBI, ICE, and the Bureau of Labor. If you want bi-partisan cooperation, propose a program that anyone convicted of knowingly hiring an undocumented immigrant have their company permanently shuttered, lose the right to file a business license or be party to a business loan, or sit on any SEC-regulated board. Make the directors of areas of operations criminally, personally liable for hiring decisions in the facilities they oversee. Subject any company found to employ more than 100 undocumented immigrants to a stock moratorium: no one may buy or sell that company's stock for 90 days.
1.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/230/221495.pdf 2.
https://files.texaspolicy.com/uploads/2018/08/16102134/Immigration-s-Impact-on-the-Texas-Economy.pdf3.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/07/05/trump-ordered-border-patrol-hire-agents-instead-losing