It's a steady source of income. Keeping up the ESTA website doesn't cost $20 per user, and it lowers tracking costs for border agencies across all states. As o

It's a steady source of income. Keeping up the ESTA website doesn't cost $20 per user, and it lowers tracking costs for border agencies across all states. As of why now: iirc, it was introduced in the context of trade bickering under Trump.