MEXICAN BORDER SECURITY: HOW MUCH?

As the clip below attests, we have expanded our border security with Mexico considerably, to say the least.

The 2007 McCain/Kennedy immigration bill — the one that failed in the Senate — set out a series of goals for securing the border. As Suzy Khimm reports, even though the bill failed, we’ve met almost all its border security goals anyway. “The 2007 bill proposed to erect 300 miles of vehicle barriers, 370 miles of fencing, 105 radar and camera towers, and four drones; by 2012, we completed 651 miles of vehicle fencing--including 352 miles of pedestrian fencing and 299 vehicle barriers--300 towers, and nine drones, according to Customs and Border Patrol.” (http://webmailb.juno.com/webmail/new/5?session_redirect=true&userinfo=8b254f2f4f26b1dc56d8fe41da329a7b&count=1359561528&cf=SP2&randid=1581243125)

There are those in congress who want to link immigration reform to yet more border security.  How much are we willing to spend to keep illegal Hispanics out and at what damage to our economy?  Illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle which some attest to our poor economy rather than all we are doing on border security.  At some point the cost to keep an illegal immigrant  out of the U.S. soars.  Stringent state anti-illegal immigration laws are further restricting undocumented workers.  At the same time you are hearing of farmers who are not planting full crops or letting part of their crops rot in the fields because they can not get the help to harvest it, mostly done by undocumented workers estimated to be 70% of the workforce. (http://business.time.com/2012/09/21/bitter-harvest-u-s-farmers-blame-billion-dollar-losses-on-immigration-laws/)

It appears to me that border security is not a key issue at this point.  The price tag, until now, has not been public. But AP, using White House budgets, reports obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional transcripts, tallied it all up: $90 billion in 10 years (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/06/26/us-border-security-huge-costs-with-mixed-results-2/).  About a half million illegals were caught in 2010 (463,000 vs. 1.6 million 10 yrs ago).  At this rate, we are spending more than  $180,000 to catch an illegal immigrant.