Costs and Benefits from Clinton to Bush Essay

Under the administration of former president Bill Clinton during the fiscal year of 1999, approximately $108. 2 million was spent on border control which includes operations from criminal justice, law enforcement and actual border patrol along the twenty-four U. S. -Mexico borders alone (â€Å"Illegal Immigrants in U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition†). In fiscal year 2007 under the administration of President George Bush, approximately $7. 8 billion was sought to finance the whole border patrol operations which was roughly $1 billion more than last year (Campbell). The jump in the budget allocation from 2006 is based on the target of President Bush to add 12,000 more border patrol agents across the country. But back in 2001 and previous years during the Clinton leadership, the border control operations were merely funded with an average of about $2 billion annually (Schmitt). The increase in the funding for border patrol from the Clinton through the Bush administrations has paved the way for more patrol equipments, patrol agents and other resources necessary for securing the borders. However, the increase in both manpower and patrolling facilities and equipments has not entirely stalled illegal immigrants from crossing the borders. The reason behind this is that in January of 2000 there were approximately 7 million illegal immigrants in America according to the Center for Immigration Studies or CIS (â€Å"How Many Illegal Aliens are in the U. S.? †) and almost half of immigrants after year 2000 were illegal aliens estimated at around 3. 7 million (Camarota). The continued illegal immigration to the United States is proof that border patrol measures are not sufficient which apparently stands as the primary reason behind the continued increase in funding. While the benefits from these measures include the lessening of illegal immigration, the problem of illegal immigration can hardly be stopped in a short span of time as it has been a major concern for more than a decade already. Works Cited Camarota, Steven A. â€Å"Immigrants at Mid-Decade: A Snapshot of America’s Foreign-Born Population in 2005†. Center for Immigration Studies. August 9, 2008. . Campbell, Dakin. â€Å"Big Payoff for Big Business on Border Security? â€Å". 2007. NewsInitiative. Org. August 9 2008. . â€Å"How Many Illegal Aliens are in the U. S.? † 2007. The American Resistance, August 9, 2008. . â€Å"Illegal Immigrants in U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition†. Washington, DC: U. S. /Mexico Border Counties Coalition, February 2001. Schmitt, Eric. â€Å"Ambivalence Prevails in Immigration Policy†. 2001. New York Times. August 9, 2008. .