Speaking to members of the press after a day of campaigning in Nevada, Carson explained that the key to reducing illegal immigration to the United States is cutting the “benefits” that attract immigrants from abroad. It’s hard to imagine what benefits Carson could be referring to, as even full fledged American citizens don’t have access to, say, universal health care, paid maternity leave, or decent cash assistance programs. In fact, in 2013, the Social Security Administration estimated that undocumented immigrants paid $13 billion into the program, but only got $1 billion in benefits, so they “contributed roughly $12 billion to the cash flow of the program for 2010.”
Yet one must still admire that Carson is so committed to keeping immigrants out of the United States that he would turn the country into a complete wasteland to nudge them away. That’s the kind of decisiveness we need in a president.