Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants currently in the United States will cost American taxpayers more than $5 trillion, according to Heritage Foundation economic expert Derrick Morgan, who appeared as a guest Tuesday on
Newsmax TV’s "America’s Forum."
Citing Robert Rector, an authority on poverty, welfare programs, and immigration in America, Morgan said the figure was reached by adding federal, state, and local costs to school districts and other benefits provided to illegal immigrants over their lifetime.
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"The fact that the president is contemplating now a new executive order granting amnesty for 5 million, or perhaps even more illegal immigrants, is extremely troubling," he said. "It was bad enough when he did it with the so-called Dreamers, but now he's going to do it with millions more."
The DREAM Act, announced by President Barack Obama in 2012, provides conditional permanent residency to certain immigrants who come to the United States before age 16 and live here for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment.
Morgan said Obama may be looking to grant an amnesty equivalent to those already here to "help him in the election in November among those who are more sympathetic to illegal immigrants."
Doing so will guarantee a continual flood of people arriving at U.S. borders with the intent of entering illegally, in essence penalizing those who have followed the law, according to Morgan.
"They will see that illegal activity is instead of being prosecuted, it's actually welcome, and that you can jump to the front of the line," he said. "America admits 1 million legal immigrants every year, the people who are waiting in line, following the rules, they're being really discriminated against by those who have decided they're going to take the law to their own hands and break the law. To me, that's one of the more troubling aspects of this."
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