Jason Richwine, a Resident Scholar of the Center for Immigration Studies, exposed how costly the amnesty bill that was floating in Congress would have turned out.
The catch with this amnesty bill is how it’s being moved through Congress via the Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill.
The bill would cover “essential workers” on top of people who hold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status.
The House Judiciary Committee held a “markup” work session on September 13, 2021 for an illegal alien amnesty bill that has been snuck into the Democrats’ budget reconciliation bill. The amnesty would encompass “essential workers,” in addition to holders of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status. On top of that, so-called “dreamers”, illegal aliens who arrived with their parents when they were 18 or younger, would also be covered. Richwine highlighted that 8 million illegal alíens could receive amnesty.
Richwine observed that under present law illegal aliens are net contributors to Social Security and Medicare. Most of these illegal aliens partially contribute to entitlement programs but are not legally eligible to receive benefits. But as Richwine pointed out, “By granting eligibility for benefits, however, amnesty would transform illegal immigrants from net contributors into net beneficiaries, imposing steep costs on the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.”
CIS published a report back in April with estimates of the costs that an amnesty would bring about. According to their figures, amnesty would come with a lifetime net cost on Social Security and Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) of roughly $129,000 per individual receiving amnesty.
Richwine broke down the costs of granting amnesty to 8 million illegal aliens:
Extrapolating from the results above, an amnesty for 8 million illegal immigrants would generate a total cost to Social Security and Medicare Part A of roughly $1 trillion in present value. The cost of smaller or larger amnesties can be estimated by multiplying $129,000 by the number of recipients.
Richwine also added some of the considerations being included in the reconciliation bill:
There are special considerations in the case of this reconciliation bill. Some of the illegal immigrants who would receive amnesty are already eligible for Social Security and Medicare due to their current “deferred” or “temporary” status. Whether the proposed bill adds new entitlement costs for those particular amnesty recipients depends on whether we consider such status to be effectively permanent. The bill’s amnesty recipients also probably skew younger than the overall illegal population, although the difference cannot be large if 8 million out of 11 million are covered.
Overall, an amnesty would be rather pricey for America but not just in the fiscal sense. An amnesty would fundamentally transform America along political lines and likely result in the disappearance of American culture as we know it. The good news is that the Senate Parliamentarian has apparently scrapped the amnesty proposal, derailing Democrats’ current amnesty efforts. Though this move is likely to provide cover to moderate Democrats who are in swing states and are afraid that a pro-amnesty vote could hurt their electoral prospects during the 2022 mid-terms.
Let’s not get complacent. The Left never rests and will look for every way possible to pass amnesty. This latest defeat is just a roadblock in their unholy quest to fundamentally transform America. America First patriots must be ready to stop each and every one of the Left’s schemes to transform America via immigration.
