We'll find some money if we fix border crisis

Our leaders in Congress are currently bickering about how our government should spend trillions of dollars it does not have, and which shouldn't be spent at all. They lament not yet "finding the money" to cover these imprudent spending plans. (Don't you love how money must be "found" as if it might be in a musty basement or old garden shed?) Anyway, I have a suggestion. Why not follow the law and put a stop to the farce at the nation's southern border?

The latest available data showed that the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection spent $3.076 Billion on "custody operations" in 2018. Among other things, this involves food, lodging, transportation, medical care, and social services for illegal aliens. That's $8.43 million per day. Surely, the numbers for 2021 will be higher because of the border surges organized and promoted by people who hate the U.S.

I realize this is "chump change" to members of Congress, but it's a place to start their efforts to "find" money. Seal the borders, follow the law and promote legal immigration - and the nation will save a ton of money. Finishing "the Wall" will pay for itself, too.

It's not on the front pages or prime-time cable programs yet, but 60,000, 80,000 or more than 100,000 (numbers vary) additional future illegal immigrants are massed and heading to the border as this is written. When dispersed throughout the nation, many will become welfare-dependent souls who will compete with poor folks already in our country legally for limited state, county and city welfare services and assistance funds.

And what are Congress and the Biden Administration doing about this? If past is prologue (only about 2,000 of the 16,000 Haitians who recently decided to walk in and live in the U.S. were deported), you already know that answer. If you think all this is fair, do nothing. Otherwise, speak out and vote.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg