ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT
Government's Own Data Show Point to a Cost-Effective Strategy
WASHINGTON (April 2006) -- Proponents of mass legalization of the illegal alien
population often justify this radical step by suggesting that the only
alternative – a broad campaign to remove illegal aliens by force – is
unworkable. One study fancifully suggested that the cost of such a deportation
strategy would be $206 billion over the next five years.
But mass forced removal is not the only alternative to mass legalization. A
third way is to seek attrition of the illegal population through law
enforcement, encouraging illegal aliens to give up and leave of their own
accord.
A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies uses a variety of federal
government data to demonstrate that such a strategy of attrition, combined with
a stronger border security effort such as the administration's Secure Border
Initiative (SBI), can significantly reduce the size of the illegal alien
population at a reasonable cost.
The report, by CIS Senior Policy Analyst Jessica Vaughan, finds that,
according to the government's own cost estimates, an attrition strategy could
cut the illegal population by nearly half in five years, with an additional
investment of less than $2 billion, or $400 million per year – an increase
of less than 1 percent of the President's 2007 budget request for the Department
of Homeland Security ($42.7 billion).
The report, ''Attrition Through Enforcement: A Cost-Effective Strategy to Shrink
the Illegal Population,'' is on line at
http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/back406.html and includes the following
additional findings:
* Elements of an attrition strategy would include: mandatory workplace
verification of immigration status; measures to curb misuse of Social Security
and IRS identification numbers; partnerships with state and local law
enforcement officials; expanded entry-exit recording under US-VISIT; increased
non-criminal removals; and state and local laws to discourage illegal
settlement.
* An attrition strategy could reduce the illegal population by as many as 1.5
million illegal aliens each year. Currently, only about 183,000 illegal aliens
per year depart without the intervention of immigration officials, according to
DHS statistics.
* Persuading illegals to leave of their own accord works faster and is cheaper
than a borders-only approach to immigration law enforcement. For example, under
the controversial NSEERS program launched after 9/11, DHS removed roughly 1,500
illegally-resident Pakistanis; over the same time period, in response to the
registration requirements, about 15,000 illegal Pakistani immigrants left the
country on their own.
* Requiring employers to verify the status of workers could deny jobs to about
three million illegal workers in three years, affecting at least one-third of
the illegal population. This measure is a central feature of H.R. 4437, the
enforcement measure passed by the House of Representatives in December, and is
estimated to cost just over $400 million over five years.
* The Internal Revenue Service knows the name, address, and place of employment
of millions of illegal aliens, and issues hundreds of millions of dollars in tax
refunds and tax credits to illegal aliens. Changing the laws to provide for
information-sharing would help boost immigration law enforcement at minimal
cost.
* US-VISIT border registration program is a critical tool in curbing illegal
immigration. Screening must be expanded to include Mexicans and Canadians, and
DHS must move forward to deploy an exit-recording system. These steps should be
a prerequisite to adding or expanding any visa program.
* Less than 10 percent of the investigative resources of the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are devoted to fraud, workplace
violations, and overstayers. DHS could double non-criminal removals at a cost of
roughly $120 million per year, balancing a ''broken windows'' approach with its
current triage approach to interior enforcement.
* Laws enacted by the state governments of Florida and New York to prevent
illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses have induced more illegal
aliens to leave than have federal enforcement efforts against certain illegal
populations in those states, and have come at virtually no cost to the federal
government.
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Center for Immigration Studies
1522 K St. NW, Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 466-8185 / fax: (202) 466-8076
center@cis.org / www.cis.org
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