First, I have some good news for listeners of Knight and Rose. First, we will have a new episode for you coming out this Saturday around noon. Rose still sounds a bit sick in it, but we found out what was causing her to be sick, and we are working on eliminating it. But for today’s post, I just wanted to write something up that I could refer back to if I ever had to answer why I like a secure border.

So, I went looking for a recent article about the costs of illegal immigration, and I found this article from The Daily Signal, written by Erin Dwinell. He is the senior research associate with The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center.

He writes:

Annually, illegal immigration now costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year. For instance, in states far away from the southern border like Illinois, that cost was $4.59 billion in 2022. That’s $930 per household. Every year.

[…]Border communities have long been overwhelmed under these policies. The crisis now costs California $21.76 billion and Texas $8.88 billion annually in education, health care, law enforcement and criminal justice system costs, welfare expenditures, and more. Border states are often the subject of shocking reports of epidemics of violent attacks, taxpayers footing the bill for illegal aliens’ health care costs, and increased property destruction.

It’s not just border states. A lot of states are run by Democrats and they refuse to enforce immigration policies. The voters in these blue states want to be seen as tolerant and generous. But there’s a price to pay:

At a rate of $65,116 per alien, New York City Mayor Eric Adams estimates his city will need to spend $2.8 billion in the next fiscal year to deal with the rapid influx.

The costs are for things like health care, education, state and local government benefits, legal representation, etc. Boy, that sure is a lot of money just to be able to virtue signal to the rest of America about how generous you are.

But the funny thing is, Democrat voters aren’t actually generous. They talk about being generous, but when the bill comes due, they don’t want to pay it. As I blogged about recently, leftism is mostly about loudly talking about being on board with the latest thing. It’s a social activity. People say whatever they have to say in order to seem virtuous, as long as it doesn’t cost them anything.

And that’s what we see when illegals arrive in blue states:

Florida Gov. DeSantis followed through on his promise to drop off illegal immigrants in progressive states, sending two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday.

A video provided to Fox News Digital shows the migrants deplaned at Martha’s Vineyard Airport in Massachusetts.

“If you have folks who are inclined to think Florida is a good place [to settle], our message to them is we are not a sanctuary state, and it’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction,” DeSantis told a crowd Thursday afternoon.

“And yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures,” he added.

[…]The migrants boarded a bus Friday that departed the liberal island haven and arrived at Joint Base Cape Cod, where Republican Gov. Charlie Baker opened a shelter.

Sadly, the Democrats deported all of their illegal props at the local military base, and last I heard, they were planning to build a wall, like the MULTIPLE walls around Barack Obama’s house.

It’s not just Martha’s Vineyard thinks that illegal immigrants should be welcomed in, then immediately deported. It’s Chicago, Illinois – one of the most progressive cities in America.

The New York Post reports:

Chicago residents condemned local leadership last week for plans to house illegal immigrants in a shuttered high school in the neighborhood.

Chicago is one of many cities overwhelmed by illegal immigrants seeking asylum amid crisis at America’s southern border.

During a May 4 community meeting at South Shore International College Preparatory High School, local residents expressed their outrage at the proposal of housing hundreds of migrants in an already struggling area.

Again, remember that study I blogged about. The “morality” of the secular left is simple. Talk and talk and talk about loving your fellow man. As long as it doesn’t cost you anything, personally. We have to get better at understanding that people who talk about the poor are just serving themselves. The people who say “help the poor” don’t help the poor themselves. The people who say “don’t judge” say that because they don’t want you to judge them. It’s just selfishness.

It’s important to understand that the secular left doesn’t intend to pay any of the costs suggested by their generous talk. They expect YOU to pay for their virtue-signaling. That’s why we must never let them win elections.