Heritage Foundation experts accounted for three of the nine articles in the Journal of International Security Affairs‘ recent symposium (not yet online) on the 30th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative:

1. Baker Spring reviews the history of missile defense and explains that lawmakers opposed to such defenses have come to see its benefits
2. Rebecca Heinrichs discusses the varying sorts of threats for which missile defenses are appropriate
3. Michaela Dodge explains the logic of space-based missile defenses

Do you think missile defense can help keep America safe?

Congress is holding hearings today about the September terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of four Americans. Heritage Foundation experts have identified several questions that remain unanswered and how to anticipate and mitigate similar threats in the future.

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The Heritage Foundation released a pivotal report today  which calculates that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion.

Some highlights from the report:

• If amnesty is enacted, the average adult unlawful immigrant would receive $592,000 more in government benefits over his lifetime than he would pay in taxes.
• The lifetime fiscal deficit of amnesty — benefits minus taxes — would be $6.3 trillion, and that’s a conservative estimate.
• When those granted amnesty retire and collect Social Security, they would draw $3.00 out of the pot for every $1.00 they paid in.
• In 2010, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes. That means that each illegal immigrant household today costs taxpayers $14,387 per year. Amnesty would provide unlawful households with access to over 80 means-tested welfare programs, Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare. The fiscal deficit for each household would soar.

In their 93-page report, Heritage welfare expert Robert Rector and domestic policy scholar Jason Richwine break down the cost of amnesty to the U.S. taxpayer. Even accounting for the phased approach to implementing government benefits that some amnesty advocates favor, the long-term cost is astronomical. Continue Reading »

Congress should slow down its consideration of the Gang of Eight immigration bill and evaluate the plan’s costs, Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto today.

Speaking to Cavuto by phone, DeMint urged lawmakers to reconsider the amnesty-first Senate proposal. The way this bill works, he said, amnesty is enacted first and “then we have to hope that the President and the Congress actually carry through on fixing our immigration system.”

What do you think of the Gang of Eight plan? Tell us in the comments.

Ariel Cohen

New information released this morning identifies the suspects in the Boston marathon bombings as coming from Chechnya.

Heritage Foundation expert Ariel Cohen released a report last fall on the threats posed to the U.S. and our allies by instability in Chechnya and Russia’s Northern Caucasus region.

“As Russia continues to lose control of the region, it is becoming a significant base for Islamist terrorist organizations and organized crime and may ignite an even greater terrorist campaign inside Russia and beyond,” Cohen wrote.

Read the whole report, which includes substantial background on the region and its instability.

Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom

In the wake of this week’s tragic attacks, including the Boston bombing and the ricin-laced letters sent to , policymakers need to refocus on effective homeland security solutions.

The first purpose of federal government is to protect its citizens. For this reason, The Heritage Foundation has long been focused on developing homeland security policies that keep the U.S. safe and prosperous, as seen in the following reports.

Eight Heritage reports summarized on Heritage.org can serve as a guide to future reforms: Continue Reading »

Heritage Foundation experts have been hitting the airwaves to provide insights into the tragedy in Boston and the ongoing investigation into Monday’s bombing.

A full list of media appearances is below.

For Heritage’s take on the attacks, please read today’s Morning Bell. Continue Reading »

After yesterday’s tragic explosions in Boston, Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint offered these words on behalf of the entire Heritage staff:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Boston Marathon explosion victims and their families. Thanks to the police, fire fighters, and other public servants courageously responding to the dangerous scene.

Read more from Heritage experts in today’s Morning Bell.

Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom

“America is at its best when it faces adversity with courage, confidence, and determination,” Heritage Foundation homeland security expert James Carafano writes in today’s Morning Bell.

He continues:

A security professional knows what to do first: Take care of the injured, protect the responders and bystanders who are racing to the scene to help (who can often be the target of follow-on attacks), and preserve the evidence available at the scene. Those efforts appear well underway. We should be proud of the responders and the citizens of Boston.

Our assessments and speculation on what to do next should not outpace what we know. Even very authoritative-sounding reports issued from the scene or shared by on-scene reporters or witnesses may turn out to be inaccurate. That has already proven the case in Boston with conflicting reports on the number of explosions, claims of suspects in custody, and statements about unexploded devices being recovered.

In cases such as this, officials often can garner a tremendous amount of evidence from the crime scene in the first 72 hours. In such investigations, you start with the evidence and that leads to suspects, not the other way around.

While we should boost security at future events like this upcoming marathon in Pittsburgh,  we should also be aware that no measures are foolproof, Carafano argues. “The best security, if this is confirmed as a coordinated, predetermined act, is to stop the perpetrators before they undertake their attacks.”

More importantly, we should show our love and support for the victims of this cowardly act.

“For now, we should all stand with Boston,” Carafano says. “We should all show the world that today we will get up unafraid, and America will step forward into the day.”

North Korea has continued its saber-rattling this week, and news reports suggest the communist nation is preparing a missile launch.

North Korea’s threats should not be taken lightly. The Heritage Foundation’s Michaela Dodge tells us that Pyongyang’s missile program pose a threat to the United Statest:

North Korea can already hit Hawaii, parts of Alaska, and California. It can also hit U.S. forward-deployed troops in South Korea, Japan, and Guam…While the Obama Administration does not believe that North Korea is capable of hitting the U.S. with a nuclear weapon, the U.S. has a history of underestimating North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

American troops and bases are also located throughout the region, including along the Demilitarized Zone that serves as a border between North and South Korea.