President Trump on Sunday asserted that the U.S. has already incurred nearly $19 billion in costs related to illegal immigration in 2019, and called it “ridiculous” that millions of immigrants are living in the U.S illegally.
Trump claimed in a tweet that there are close to 26 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, casting doubt on the more commonly cited figure of 11 million.
We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168. Cost Friday was $603,331,392. There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2019
Asked about the tweet on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended the president’s broader point about the need for increased border security.
“I’m not exactly sure where the president got that number this morning, but I think what you see him trying to do is point out how silly this debate is,” Mulvaney said. “This is not that much money in the greater scheme of things. – READ MORE