, Columnist
That Extra ICE Funding Could Buy a Lot of School Meals
Worth the cost?
Photographer: Herika Martinez/AFP
Whatever their views on America’s immigration laws, most Americans probably have no idea how much the US is spending to enforce them. That’s in part because congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump slipped an additional $170 billion for enforcement — a five-fold increase — into the $3.4 trillion budget bill that became law last summer.
Were it given the scrutiny it deserved, this investment in immigration enforcement would surely be opposed by many Americans, whose support for legal immigration has reached record levels. Consider as an exercise how that $170 billion compares to the investment the federal government makes, or could make, in children.