Another form of twisting the narrative: Breitbart has an article titled
‘Child Border Crossers Have Higher Standard of Living than 13M Impoverished American Children’. The crux of the article is the apparently, in 2017, each unacommpanied minor (and the Trump administration is claiming the vast majority of children are such), costs the government $34,660 annually.
Breitbart then compares this to the salaries of an average family below the poverty line. Let’s ignore the geopolitical circumstances, and conveniently forget about how bureaucracies might work and cost. It’s okay if they are in a cage, because it has a TV, and geez, some American kids don’t even have that.
Migrant children who cross into the United States either alone or with adults have a higher standard of living once they are put into federal care than the more than 13 million American children who are living in poverty across the country.
In Fiscal Year 2017, the federal government referred nearly 41,000 unaccompanied minor border crossers to the Unaccompanied Alien Children program which is facilitated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Data provided to Breitbart News reveals that each unaccompanied minor costs the federal government about $34,660 annually. This is a higher standard of living per child than the roughly 13 million American children who continue to live below the U.S. poverty line.
In 2016, there were about 13.2 million American children under the age of 18 living in poverty. These are U.S. children, for example, whose parents or guardians –in a household of four — earn less than $24,500 a year.
This annual income for an impoverished American family is $10,000 less than the more than $34,500 in federal funds which are spent on each unaccompanied minor border crosser.