Shikha Dalmia In the Washington Examiner on GOP's Border Obsession

The comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed a week ago with plans to spend a whopping $46 billion on "securing the border" over 10 years is now before the House where Republicans remain committed to torpedoing it after they return from recess on Monday. As far as they are concerned, the bill doesn't go far enough in shooing away Mexicans who break their backs so that Americans can eat cheap apples and poultry and live in McMansions. They want proof positive that the border is "fully secure" before they will agree to anything resembling "amnesty" for unauthorized workers in the country.

But Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia says in the Washington Examiner today that the Republican obsession with total border security, regardless of cost, resembles the liberal obsession with a totally pristine environment, money no object. However, she notes:

In a world of finite resources, spending more on harmless unauthorized workers means spending less on genuine criminals, hardly a recipe for making America safe. This is the same illogic that enviros deploy when they waste billions to scrub superfund sites to make the dirt edible by children — instead of prioritizing cleanup dollars to fight genuine health threats.

Go here to read the whole thing.