The next few weeks will tell whether there is any chance for Congress and President Trump to come to terms on an immigration policy that makes sense. The past few months have seen far too much brinkmanship on both sides, but the recently named bipartisan congressional conference committee has real potential for a breakthrough. Its members include some of our most experienced legislators, including New York Rep. Nita Lowey, chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
If this panel can put the national interest above partisanship, there’s a path to resolving the impasse that recently left the federal government shut down for over a month. Shutdowns are never good for anyone. Important government business doesn’t get done, including work that affects the immigration crisis.
And yes, American immigration policy is in crisis, and it impacts the entire country, including Long Island. It’s estimated that over 12 million illegal immigrants are already in the U.S., and that nearly 1 million more are waiting to go through our immigration courts. This flood of immigrants has had serious impacts on Long Island. So, while another government shutdown over immigration should be avoided, this crisis must be addressed.
In the past few years, nearly 10,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee Settlement. These children have crowded into area schools, straining local education resources. At an average annual cost of over $20,000 per student, the potential impact approaches $200 million each year. That’s a big hit for Long Islanders already carrying a high property-tax burden. And that doesn’t count additional social-service costs, including Medicaid, which also fall in large part on property taxpayers.
Our unsecured southern border has also contributed to the influx of criminal gangs like MS-13 that have terrorized Long Island communities, and the flood of illegal drugs that have poisoned so many of our young people. The border wall naysayers like to point to figures showing that most drug seizures occur at ports of entry, but tons of drugs are obviously pouring through other points along the border and finding their way north. We can reasonably assume that drug smugglers will exploit the weakest, least-guarded places along the border to ship their deadly wares toward places like Long Island.