It’s an election year and one of the pressing topics in the presidential race is border security and immigration.
Texas makes up about half of the US and Mexico border and is using its resources to fund border security.
"Texas has been ramping up its border funding for several years now,” Texas Tribune reporter Karen Brooks Harper said. “And generally, it comes from state taxpayer money, just general revenue."
But how much money does it cost the state?
“They put… nearly $5 billion … in the border security last just last session for the next two years," Harper said.
While that’s how much the state currently spends, experts like Juan Carlos Cerda, state director for the American Business Immigration Coalition, argue that maybe we shouldn’t spend so much on border security.
“Immigration benefits the Texas economy,” Cerda said. “Texas is the eighth-largest economy in the world… They [immigrants] generate an income of almost, $33.9 billion in spending power.”
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