Questions for Secretary Napolitano: Drug Cartels and Immigration
Jena McNeill /
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is tentatively scheduled to testify before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee about DHS immigration enforcement policies on May 6, 2009. Given Secretary Napolitano’s novel interpretations of federal law, the Heritage Foundation will be posting a series of questions (and suggested answers) for the Secretary.
Question # 4: The Obama Administration has recently announced new efforts to tackle the drug cartel problem on the southern border. Will this new emphasis on drug cartels mean a lesser emphasis on the problem of illegal immigration and have the effect of curtailing immigration enforcement efforts?
Approximately 11 million illegal aliens live in the United States. About 375,000 people enter the U.S. illegally through gaps in the southern border each year. Once in the U.S., illegal aliens often do not feed the tax system, but put a major strain on government services, such as for health care and education. Particularly hard-hit are state and local governments, which often bear the burden of footing the bill. Illegal aliens in California have cost the state between $9 billion and $38 billion in public services. The state of Texas has estimated that the bill for illegal immigrant hospital care was as much as $1.3 billion in 2006. (more…)