Report: Immigration tops federal law enforcement spending

http://www.mycuentame.org/report_immigration_tops_federal_law_enforcement_spending

The United States government spent more money on immigration enforcement in fiscal year 2012 than it did on other federal law enforcement agencies combined, says a new report that details enforcement programs and spending.

Over a quarter century, spending on immigration enforcement has added up to nearly $187 billion. That's closer to $219 billion in 2012 dollars. The federal data is included in a new report titled "Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery." One of its authors is Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the agency that preceded Homeland Security. She and others produced the report for an independent think tank, the Migration Policy Institute.

The report indicates that during the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, the Obama administration's spending on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (which oversees the U.S. Border Patrol) and the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program hit $17.9 billion. This exceeded combined expenditures of $14.4 billion for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

(More at the link.)