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  By: Julia Preston 
Published: January 7, 2013  

On January 7, 2013, it was released that nearly $18 billion were
spent under the Obama administration on immigration enforcement just in the past
year. This amount is significantly higher than any other major federal law
enforcement agencies combined. “In recent years, it found, the two main
immigration enforcement agencies under the Department of Homeland Security have referred more cases to the courts for prosecution than all of the Justice
Department’s law enforcement agencies combined, including the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives. Total spending on those agencies was $14 billion.”

     There has also been an increase in technology and monitoring
databases since the September 11 terrorist attack. The federal authorities have
created the “largest law enforcement electronic verification system in the
world.” Mr. Krikorian stated that there is a “lack of a national system for
employers to verify that new hires are legally authorized to work.” So although
$18 billion have gone into immigration enforcement in the past year, there are
still problems that need to be worked out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/us/huge-amounts-spent-on-immigration-study-finds.html?ref=world&_r=0 


Nick DiClementi
1/11/2013 07:47:27 am

Wow. I had no idea that the Obama administration had spent that much money on immigration enforcement. This is especially surprising due to the fact that President Obama is thought of to be pretty lax on his immigration viewpoints. However, some of this money could have been spent for reasons outside of the president's direct control. Nevertheless, it is very perplexing as to why this much money was spent on immigration considering the state of our economy.

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Catherine Soltesz
1/17/2013 10:18:35 am

I agree with Nick that this is very surprising. It is not only surprising because Obama's stance on immigration laws is not very strict, but also because the government is supposed to be cutting back on their spending. This puts the amount of spending into perspective.

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