A billion here, a billion there…
Is there really any doubt why U.S. “Immigration Reform” depends more on convincing the two pro-corporate parties in the U.S. legislature (take your pick as to which one) that a slightly more rational policy won’t hurt their insistence on frugality when it comes to human services, and lavish spending when it comes to anti-human control devices?
From what I can figure out, making immigration to the U.S. no less a byzantine bureaucratic nightmare, but at least slightly less punitive (I can only think of North Korea and Iran as countries where visa overstays are treated as criminal, and not civil, matters), depends on doubling the number of paramilitary Border Patrol and other “Homeland Security” personnel along the southern border, and installing about the same amount of security used to protect South Korea from the North.
There’s also the matter of who profits from the surge. As troops come back from Afghanistan and budget cuts hit defense spending, companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, among others, are turning their attention towards the Mexican border.
The New York Times reported recently that half a dozen major military contractors are already preparing for an unusual showdown to secure DHS contracts.
More security means more immigrants detained in private prisons and more profits for industry giants like Corrections Corporations of America, Management and Training Corporation and the GEO group, who recently ramped up its lobbying for immigration reform, according to this recent article published in The Nation.
(Enrique Acevedo, ABC/Univision)
One thought: that 30 BILLION U.S. dollars to be spent for “security” doesn’t include the housing that will be required for an additional 20,000 agents. Who, presumably have families (and a paid a hell of a lot better than the locals in places like Presidio County, Texas). Where are they going to find construction crews do you think?
