The immigration problem in the ‘beautiful bill’

President Trump said something curious during an interview on CNBC the other day.

Now, he says at lot of curious things, but in responding to a question about undocumented farmworkers and the hardship it creates for farmers when those workers are detained by ICE, he said the following:

“In some cases, we’re sending them back to their country with a pass back in legally … We’re sending them back … and they are coming in legally. We have a lot of that going on, but we’re taking care of our farmers.”

Let us note that about 40% of American farmworkers are undocumented or, if you prefer, illegal, despite a guest worker program that has always been inadequate.

What the president seemed to be saying is that the American taxpayer is funding the deportation of individuals so they can be given some sort of pass and allowed right back into the country, but this time legally. What does it cost to deport a single individual? Estimates range from $10,000 to $70,000 a person.

Even supporters of the president’s tougher line on immigration have asked “didn’t he say he was only going after the criminals? Why these workers?”

In reality, the policies driving immigration enforcement are quite fluid at the moment with various camps within the administration, the courts, business lobbyists, and advocacy groups pushing in various directions.

It is doubtful that the policy described by the president exists. Immigration hawks would oppose carve-outs for favored groups such as farmworkers or hotel workers. They see it as a slippery slope.

The president gave the undocumented farmworkers a compliment of sorts. He noted that they were hard to replace. “People who live in the inner city won’t do the work,” said the president. “They’ve tried. We’ve tried. Everybody’s tried. They don’t do it. These people (the undocumented) do it naturally. Naturally. In many ways they are very, very special people.”

One can set aside the president’s racial stereotypes for another time, but his comments illustrate a fundamental problem with the border enforcement provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed on

July 4. Let’s be clear, those provisions were about border security, not immigration.

In part this was because the administration had to use the process of reconciliation to sidestep the requirement to find 60 votes in the Senate. As such, there is an awful lot of money — some $170 billion — but precious little guidance on how, exactly, that money will be spent.

The vast majority of the funds are for the border wall and associated technologies ($57.8 billion); deportation, including the hiring of 10,000 new ICE agents ($54.4 billion); and the expansion of detention facilities ($45 billion). There is great potential for — what’s the term? — oh yeah — fraud, waste and abuse.

To take one example, one might expect long, drawn-out court fights over access to land as they try to expand border fencing. Then there are publicity stunts such as “Alligator Alcatraz”.

It is possible that in three-and-a-half years a new administration will come in with different ideas about asylum, refugee policy, guest workers, and the so-called Dreamers who still twist in the wind. What will all that money have accomplished besides reducing the size of our labor force?

One would like to believe that Democrats have learned the lesson that hoards of immigrants clamoring at the border on the nightly news is not good for the country or their electoral prospects. They might be willing to sit down with serious Republicans and actually reform our immigration system.

Would the president be willing to make a deal if there is a backlash against his all-too-cruel and chaotic immigration policies?

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.