Oklahoma U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe said Thursday he’s come up with a way to pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed $25 billion border wall.
The WALL Act Inhofe intends to introduce seeks to cut off two benefits Inhofe said are going to unauthorized immigrants: refundable tax credits and federal assistance like food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and housing subsidies.
The bill would require people getting those benefits to have work-eligible social security numbers and states distributing them to use the E-verify system to confirm citizenship.
"Now, the amount of money that is saved by that, it’s a figure we don’t have an exact figure on yet. Both CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Joint Committee on Taxation are in the process of doing that right now," Inhofe said.
Inhofe presented the proposal at pipeline equipment manufacturing company Big Elk Energy Systems in Tulsa. He said the budget ranges he's heard are $13.9 billion to $30 billion and noted a physical wall won’t run the entire length of the 1,954 mile border.
"Because we’re going to have drones in some areas — and I’ve spent a lot of time on that border down there. In the metropolitan areas — you get around Brownsville, Texas, and areas like that. — yes, the wall will have to be there. But it would probably have to be something less than 1,200 miles," Inhofe said.
Trump's 2018 budget included $1.6 billion for the wall. Border wall construction would likely be a decade-long process.
The WALL Act stays away from the topic of automatic citizenship for people born in the U.S., which the president hopes to stop through executive order.
"A bill that I introduced in 2007 actually did take a way the birthright issue, because I think that’s one they shouldn’t be entitled to," Inhofe said. "But to offset the criticism that you’d get by saying that you’re addressing the birthright issue, this does not address any of those individuals."
Inhofe said passage is likely if Republicans still control Congress after the midterms.
