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''The Senate's embattled immigration bill would raise government
spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, as the
government begins paying out federal benefits to millions of new legal
workers and cracks down on the border, a new Congressional Budget
Office analysis concludes.
''Law enforcement measures alone would necessitate the hiring of nearly
31,000 federal workers in the next five years, while the building and
maintenance of 870 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers would cost
$3.3 billion. Newly legalized immigrants would claim nearly $50 billion in federal benefits such as the earned income and child tax credits, Medicaid, and Social Security.'' - Cost of Senate Immigration Bill Put at $126 Billion
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President Bush applauded its passage, but House GOP leaders have dug in
their heels against it, favoring a House-passed measure that would make
illegal immigrants felons, build hundreds of miles of fencing on the
southern border and offer no new guest-worker programs.
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