[CA Conservative]

Perry moans about the cost of a fence. But as we have just learned, in a country in which illegals receive $4.5 billion a year in refundable tax credits (i.e., free money) from the federal government, the cost of building a fence would be less than the annual cost of tax fraud by illegals.

In 2007, the Congressional Research Service determined that the cost of building and maintaining just 700 miles of fencing would be approx. $49 Billion. If we extend that to the entire border, we are talking about close to $150 billion. If we accept your figure of $4.5 billion per year in refundable tax credits to illegals, it would take 33 years to recoup the cost of the fence (not counting patrolling and enforcing it) assuming we could totally eliminate those tax credits you mention.

[Meet the New Boss]

700 miles of fencing would be approx. $49 Billion

The argument against the fence is that it would cost $70 million to build EACH mile of fence?

Bull sh!t.

[CowboyJay]

"In 2007, the Congressional Research Service determined that the cost of building and maintaining just 700 miles of fencing would be approx. $49 Billion. If we extend that to the entire border, we are talking about close to $150 billion. If we accept your figure of $4.5 billion per year in refundable tax credits to illegals, it would take 33 years to recoup the cost of the fence (not counting patrolling and enforcing it) assuming we could totally eliminate those tax credits you mention."

If that were the only cost associated with illegal immigration, you'd be correct. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. As it is, you could cut your years to breakeven by a factor of 10, and still be erring on the side of caution. I recall reading a Heritage report that put the annual cost at over $50 billion.

Even if we needed to staff it with 10,000 permanent troops to be 90% effective, and the actual cost to build/maintain the fence ran a quarter trillion over the next 25 years, we'd be way ahead fiscally.

There's no coherent argument for leaving the border unsecured. The only other way to secure it would be with manpower alone, but that would require something like a half million trained personnel on continuous deployment. I daresay that would cost in excess of 50 billion per YEAR.