Immigration Enforcement

Facing an Existential Threat to American Survival

First of all, as to the shooting deaths of protestors in Minneapolis by ICE agents, I do not wish to dwell upon the unfortunate details, although I agree they were indeed unfortunate. However, being a combat veteran myself, although not involved in close-quarter personal combat, I am familiar with the difficulties of high levels of adrenaline, stress, and urgency in combat situations.  I have retired Army and Marine officer friends who experienced more urgent combat stresses at close-quarter. This is often the very hard but unavoidable part of dedicated and honorable soldiering and law enforcement. However, in enforcing immigration laws and enforcing law in general, these unfortunate incidents will happen. They should never happen by intention, but reasonable and economic actions to reduce such incidents should have constant attention.

However, we cannot give up enforcing immigration laws. We cannot surrender the nation’s security and safety, future and freedom, and rule of just law to mobs, political agitators, and corrupt political demagogues. To give into these scoundrels,  propagandists, and their poorly informed, misguided, and manipulated Soros-paid dupes would bring our country to lawless chaos and political and economic collapse.

In Perspective:  I do not have reliable information of the number of Americans murdered by illegal immigrants or killed by intoxicated illegal alien drivers, but I do have the number of  illegal immigrants in North Carolina who were arrested in 2022 for rape or sexual assault of children. The was reported monthly by NCFIRE until the end of 2022:

In 2022, there were 268 illegal immigrants arrested in North Carolina for rape or sexual assault of 954 children.  NCFIRE gives the number (866-347-2423) for reporting cases to ICE.

Moreover, a Congressional investigation has now revealed that Minnesota-based predominantly Somali welfare fraud has cost American taxpayers in excess of $9.0 billion over 14 states.  Much of this money went to Non-government (NGO) shell-companies with humanitarian titles but was laundered to finance Somali terrorists in Africa. Yet according to the Center for Immigration Research (CIS), 82 percent of Somali children and 66 percent of Somali adults in Minnesota remain at the poverty level.  Approximately 81 percent of Somali immigrant households receive welfare payments.  See the Heritage Foundation article February 2 by Nicole Huyer. The Somali population in Minnesota is at least 84,000 and resides principally in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro-area.

Facing the Big Immigration Picture—Focusing on Neglected Problems and Solutions

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), there were AT LEAST 18.6 million illegal immigrants in the United States as of the end of March 2025. Most of these crossed the U.S. borders, mostly from Mexico, to enter the United States. But a large proportion of illegals enter the U.S. illegally by overstaying their travel, study, or work visas to become illegal immigrants.  According to the Department Homeland Security, in Fiscal Year 2023, ending September 30, 2023,  illegal overstay immigrants or visitors numbered 510,000 or 37 percent of the total of 1,370,000 known illegal immigrants.  These numbers may be conservative. To its credit, the Trump Administration has recently warned Indian visa overstayers of permanent expulsion for overstays. India is now the third largest contributor to U.S. illegal immigration behind Mexico and El Salvador.  

According to FAIR, illegal immigrants cost Americans $182 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2023. Illegal immigrant workers paid an estimated $31 billion in taxes leaving a $151 billion deficit for taxpayers and inflationary pressures. These statistics do not reflect the recently revealed $9 billion Minnesota-based Somali welfare fraud, one of the largest fraud schemes in American history.  

Enforcing border security is vitally important to the existential survival of the Constitutional Republic our country is supposed to be. But we must be aware that getting into the United States fairly easily through travel, study, business, and work visas is a growing vulnerability even as Border Security begins to work.  

The Trump Administration is working hard on getting illegal alien criminals out of the country.  This is a natural priority.  But there are two other priorities that MUST be accomplished in order to get illegal immigrants out of the country and discourage more illegal immigration.

These are what the Jordan Commission on Immigration Reform recommended to Congress in a comprehensive study on immigration from 1990 to 1997.

“Immigration law must be enforced at the workplace and undocumented immigrants must not be allowed government welfare or healthcare benefits except under emergency situations.”

Moreover, illegal immigrants should not be given driver licenses.  The Jordan Commission also warned that Guestworker programs were a source of accelerated illegal immigration and hurt American workers.

Both the Jordan Commission and the Center for Immigration Reform pointed out that enforcing immigration at the workplace and in healthcare and welfare would force most illegal immigrants to leave the country within a few years. Most of the rest could more easily be rounded up by ICE. 

Several studies have indicated the absolute disasters caused by amnesties and the immense costs to the American government, the American economy, American taxpayers, and especially American workers for continued high levels of immigration and amnesties.

Illegal immigration is only part of the immigration problem. We are allowing too many legal immigrants and that is presently costly and harms American workers. Too many immigrants over a short time also dilutes the foundational values of American culture.

The Heritage Foundation released a study in 2012 estimating that the average unlawful immigrant household costs U.S. taxpayers $14,387 per year. Using a 1.42 inflation factor would update that estimate to approximately $20,420 per year per unlawful household in 2026. These figures have been adjusted downward to account for taxes of all kinds paid by unlawful households. Tax revenues from illegal immigrants, however, are low because of relatively low levels of education and skills and low income tax brackets. 

According to the Heritage Foundation study, these costs do not go away with amnesty. They would almost double to $40,000 per year in 2026 dollars.  The much higher cost is because of greater welfare benefits and social security, which would  continue for generations. Amnesty is the road to catastrophic fiscal disaster.  Another huge problem—studies of past American amnesties, beginning in 1986, reveal that every amnesty results in about 2.5 more illegal immigrants over one to two decades.  Our present National Debt is $38.5 trillion. What effect would that have on our National Debt?  You don’t have to calculate it; you can just spell it—DISASTER. Maybe economic collapse is a better description. 

The 2012 Heritage Foundation study also found that even legal immigrants resulted in a net fiscal cost of $5,680 per lawful immigrant household per year in 2026 dollars. The larger number of better educated East Asian and South Asian immigrants over the last decade has probably reduced this deficit, but it is probably still a  significant deficit.

However, the fiscal deficits imposed by illegal immigration pale in comparison to the depressed wages and reduced employment opportunities for American workers. This is due to excessive immigration, both legal and illegal.  A 2016 paper by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) estimated this cost American workers $494 billion per year. Using an inflation factor of 1.37 since 2016, that cost probably exceeds $676 billion per year, more than $5,200 per year per American worker. 

Summarizing the Soft Power Alternative to Illegal Immigration and Amnesty

Proponents of amnesty often disingenuously argue that we must have an amnesty, because it is impossible to reduce the number of illegal immigrants here except by extreme police-state methods, alluding to railroad boxcars used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. This is a false dilemma. The Jordan Commission,  the Center for Immigration Studies, and others found that a Soft Power Plan would quickly minimize the number of illegal immigrants in the country.

The Soft Power Plan elements are simply enforcing immigration policy at the workplace and the border and  not allowing undocumented immigrants to receive  government welfare or healthcare benefits except in emergency medical situations.  Undocumented immigrants should not be allowed driver licenses. Visa permits should be more carefully monitored. The residual unlawful aliens left in the country and those associated with Drug Cartels and national security threats could be sifted out and deported by ICE over a few years, hopefully with local government and law enforcement cooperation. 

In addition, voter ID must be strictly enforced and massive ballot fraud by mail or computer prevented.

 Why don’t we do these things?   Cheap labor and  Democrat votes.  Powerful special interests have enormous control over our elections and public policy. Voters need to know the facts and make sure their elected leaders know the facts and have the courage to act on them.

Serious Reform needs to start by giving more attention and scrutiny to candidate positions on immigration issues and enforcement in 2026  Primary Elections.