ID and Tax: How Trump Can Make Illegal Immigrants Help Pay for the Wall

The federal omnibus budget that President Donald Trump approved on March 23rd allocates $1.57 billion of taxpayers’ money for barriers along the US-Mexico border, significantly less than the $18-25 billion the president has been asking for. Not only does this funding for border security come up short, but it makes Americans pay for the wall unlike the president promised during his campaign.

One way for the president to uphold his campaign promise in building a wall without American taxpayers having to foot the bill is through the ID and Tax Plan. By legislating a currently non-existent path to earn legal status for non-criminal illegal immigrants who can pass background checks and want to work hard and follow all of our laws, and then taxing them at slightly higher rate than citizens for a certain number of years, the president and Congress could use that new revenue to pay for the wall.

The federal budget specifically allocates “$251 million for approximately 14 miles of secondary fencing along the southwest border in the San Diego sector, $445 million for 25 miles of primary pedestrian levee fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, $196 million for primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, $445 million for replacement of existing primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border, $38 million for border barrier planning and design, and $196 million for acquisition and deployment of border security technology.”

The bill says those funds "shall only be available for operationally effective designs deployed as of the date of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, (Public Law 115–31), such as currently deployed steel bollard designs, that prioritize agent safety." This means the currently allocated funds for border “fencing” will not be allowed to be spent on a “big beautiful wall,” or anything like the prototypes the president has been evaluating

Last Friday, while the $1.3 trillion federal omnibus budget bill was waiting to be approved by the president, he tweeted, “I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded." He then proceeded to sign and approve the budget, which includes $654.6 billion dollars in discretionary funding for national defense “as a matter of national security,” later that day.

It now appears that President Trump may try to build the wall through the US Military with American taxpayers’ money, although doing so would require an act of Congress. On March 25th he tweeted“Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!.”

While many people agree that the US should have a secure border so that we know who and what are coming into our country, there are many varying opinions on what the best strategy for border security is. If the American people and experts on the topic decide that a full-scale wall is an effective way to secure the border and stop illegal immigrants, drugs, and terrorists from coming in, why not have people who came here illegally pay for it themselves, instead of increasing America’s massive debt?

The ID and Tax plan would solve the problem of 11 million undocumented immigrants while providing resources and policies to help stop illegal immigration from now on, all without making American taxpayers foot the bill or increasing the national debt.

This policy would reverse the current situation in which any non-taxpaying illegals and corrupt employers are subsidized by American taxpayers. American workers would once again have the kind of solid footing they need to compete in the labor market while US economic productivity continues to benefit from the newly-legalized workers.

ID and Tax is a win-win for every ethical business, American worker, and consumer. It is a solution that will increase and maintain law and order, decrease and crack down on current and future illegal immigration, and benefit all Americans through economic stability, jobs, and growth.​

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