“Border Convictions: High Stakes, Unknown Price”

In Ted Robbin's article featured on National Public Radio's website called "Border Convictions: High Stakes, Unknown Price", he talks about the "Border Control Program called Operation Streamline"  and how no one really knows how much it is costing our nation, but it is a large number. Operation Streamline works to pick up people crossing the border illegally and puts them through the court system at incredible speed. Because this program involves the judicial system, it is bound to cost more.

Even the supporters of this program do not know how much it costs. Arizona's Senator John Kyl asked Congress to get the administration to find out the total cost, and a year and a half later, no one knows. In Tuscon, around a quarter of a million immigrants enter illegally each year and they only have enough time to prosecute 70 immigrants a day, when this number needs to in fact be much higher. In order for Arizona to be able to handle this issue and run Operation Streamline to its full potential, it would have to double the resources of the entire country and put it all towards the Tuscon area. Since the amount of spending is unknown, there is no way that this extra funding can really be done.

After reading this, it's crazy to think that one of the programs that our country is running has a cost that no one knows about, not even the leaders in our country. Our money is paying for this program so why can't the price of it be known? I think it is important to know about this, because this issue affects us all. Especially since we live in a state that borders Mexico, where the majority of the country's immigration issues are occurring. I encourage everyone to read this article.