Is all this a significant amount of the US budget? I dunno, depends on how you define "significant". IMO when you are spending other people's money it's all significant.

How much money do we spend on health and education programs? How much of the federal budget is that? Because last I checked, the US spends more on its military than the next seven countries combined.

Where did the White House say "They are criminals"? I guess in that they crossed illegally they are, is that what they are saying? If so it's true by definition. Or are they trying to imply that Trump or someone at the White House said all illegals are criminals in some other way? Why is the Times not more precise in their language?

Just to be clear, these are Trump’s own words on two occasions:

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

— Donald Trump, announcement speech, June 2015

One of my first acts will be to get all of the drug lords, all of the bad ones — we have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out. We're going to get them out. We're going to secure the border. And once the border is secured, at a later date, we'll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out.

— Donald Trump, third and final presidential debate, Wednesday

One of my friends is a medical student in Chicago, who came here with his parents from Japan as a baby. He's been trying to become a citizen for years, but hasn't been able to. The system clearly doesn't work for many people. Being in favor of immigration reform is a logical claim to make.

How are the above examples of bigoted, inflammatory demagoguery any step toward smarter public policy?