Congressional Budget Office: Senate immigration bill could cut illegal immigration in half

WASHINGTON – The Congressional Budget Office says an immigration bill passed by the Senate would cut illegal immigration by one-third to one-half beyond what would happen under existing law.

That’s a significantly greater reduction than the budget office said would have resulted from an earlier version of the bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would have cut illegal immigration only 25 per cent.

Partly in response to that finding, senators agreed to greatly boost border security in the bill and take steps against people who overstay their visas. Those changes helped the bill pass the Senate with a bipartisan majority last week.

The CBO also said the legislation would reduce the federal deficit despite spending $36 billion more on border security than would happen under the committee-approved version.