The American Accountability Foundation’s numbers tell a story that goes far deeper than school ledgers: when immigration enforcement actually works, the savings cascade into every line item on a state budget—including the line that funds school safety officers and secure facilities. Florida and Texas just freed up nearly nine hundred million dollars that would otherwise have been spent teaching English to children whose parents entered the country unlawfully. That windfall doesn’t vanish into bureaucracy; it becomes available for the very programs law-abiding gun owners have fought to protect—armed school marshals, ballistic shielding, and rapid-response training that the NRA and state sheriffs’ associations have championed for years. In short, enforcing the border is turning out to be one of the most practical school-safety investments a legislature can make.

For the 2A community the lesson is straightforward: every dollar not consumed by open-border costs is a dollar that can stay in the hands of citizens or be redirected to hardening soft targets. Anti-gun lawmakers love to claim that “more guns in schools” is too expensive; the data now show that simply upholding existing immigration law produces eight-figure savings in the very districts those same lawmakers claim to champion. The next time a city council debates a school-guard program and hears moans about “budget shortfalls,” the rebuttal is already written in these enrollment tables. Secure the border, balance the books, and the money for armed, trained defenders appears—without raising a single tax or touching a single law-abiding gun owner’s rights.