Byron York, Chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, raised an interesting question on July 9. He asked what would happen to the millions of illegal aliens who would not gain legal status if the Senate S.744 bill became law.
He noted that both the Social Security Administration and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that only 8 million of today’s 11-12 million illegal aliens would be legalized under S.744. York provided dialogue between Senators Sessions and Schumer (respectively chief opponent and chief proponent of the Senate law) that clearly points to the likelihood that no enforcement action would be taken against the residual illegal alien population – at least by the current administration.
Assuming this is correct, and that the CBO is correct when it estimates that new illegal immigration under the legislation would not be reduced by more than one-third to half the level if the legislation is not enacted, then the prospect would be both a large residual illegal alien population and one that would still have a large rate of growth.
That prospect clearly puts lie to the claim of sponsors of the Senate bill that it would resolve the problem of the illegal aliens “living in the shadows” and establish effective border control. Instead, the prospect would be the creation of a continuing illegal alien problem looking forward to the next amnesty.