Bush-Kennedy Bill Will Only Reduce Illegal Immigration by 13

CBO Estimates that Bush-Kennedy Bill Will Only Reduce Illegal Immigration by 13 Percent!
On June 4th, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a cost estimate of S.1348 (now S.1639) which estimated that the Bush-Kennedy bill would not do much to solve the illegal immigration crisis facing the United States. Specifically, the CBO report estimated that even if fully funded, the Bush-Kennedy bill would reduce illegal immigration at the border by 25% but would at the same time actually increase the number of illegal aliens through aliens who overstay their Y guest worker and H-1B visas (increased in the bill). Thus, the net reduction in illegal immigration will only be about 13 percent over the next 20 years!

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) last week sent a letter to his Senate colleagues summarizing the CBO report and pointing out the importance of its findings. He wrote, "I believe you will be as shocked as I was" when reading the report. Sessions lamented that while proponents of the Bush-Kennedy legislation claim the bill will secure the border, decrease illegal immigration, and restore the rule of law to our immigration system, the CBO report demonstrates that the Bush-Kennedy bill will not fulfill these promises.