Obama DREAM Amnesty to Cost At Least $585 Million?

The Obama Administration's plan to grant deferred action status and work authorization to illegal aliens meeting criteria similar to the DREAM Act could cost over $585 million, internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reveal. (Arizona Central, July 24, 2012)

The documents, leaked to the Associated Press last week, provide the first look at the Administration's cost projections for the amnesty program announced June 15. They include estimates that the federal government will need to hire over 1,400 new employees and contractors to process the more than one million anticipated applications. (Id.) In fact, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — the agency that the Inspector General discovered earlier this year was pressuring its employees into rubber-stamping immigration benefits applications despite questions of fraud or ineligibility — estimates the amnesty will result in it processing more than 3,000 applications daily.