National Policy Institute calls for mass deportation of illegals

Kevin Lamb:

The National Policy Institute, a McLean, Virginia think tank, has called for the deportation of illegals in the U.S. A recently issued NPI paper has crunched the numbers and the Institute concludes that deporting illegal aliens would save Americans billions in annual taxes as well as increase the average income of native-born U.S. workers.

The Economics of Immigration Enforcement: Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Mass Deportation, written by statistical expert Edwin Rubenstein, presents startling data and analysis of the massive costs of illegal immigration to Americans and the enormous benefits that would result from deporting illegals.

The NPI paper is a direct response to a well publicized July 2005 study by The Center for American Progress, a leftwing think tank. The Center’s paper claims that the price of deporting illegal aliens would be prohibitive, costing the government up to $230 billion over five years.

But the Center’s paper basically ignores the total cost to American taxpayers of having anywhere from 8.5 to 20 million illegals in the U.S. who demand and receive benefits such as education, medical care, welfare and housing subsidies. NPI’s study finds that illegals receive more than $26 billion per year in federal services and additional billions from state and local governments.

Moreover, illegals have a negative impact on the jobs and income of American-born workers. The NPI paper cites a study by a Harvard professor, George Borjas, who estimates that every 10 percent increase in the labor force due to immigration results in a 3.5 percent decrease in native-born wages. The loss to American workers will be staggering when, as the U.S. Census forcasts, the illegal percentage of the labor force reaches 34 percent in 2025.

These are only a few of the facts and figures in NPI’s well-documented and comprehensive study. Rubenstein illustrates the clear advantage to Americans, as both taxpayers and workers, of deporting illegal aliens. The NPI study provides convincing evidence that the alien problem could be catastrophic and that deportation is a most reasonable option.

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