As domestic security has tightened and the economy has weakened, Americans have focused on solving the issue of illegal immigration and recovering the costs associated with it. Unfortunately, Michigan has suffered sustained negative impact from the cost of illegal immigration in recent years due to a relatively static population.
An estimated 120,000 illegal immigrants lived in Michigan in 2012,
according to data from the Pew Research Center. They made up 1.2 percent of the state's population.
The annual costs to Michigan’s taxpayers were estimated at $897 million,
according to data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. This deficit was calculated before state revenue from illegal immigrants, totaling $32.3 million, was counted.
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FAIR reported the following costs associated with illegal immigration in Michigan, broken down as such:
- $367 million went to education
- $87.6 million to healthcare
- $66 million to justice and law enforcement
- $143 million to public assistance
- $255 million to general government services
Nationally, according to the Pew Research Center, the undocumented immigrant population had "leveled off" after dipping some during the Great Recession.
In 2012, "an estimated 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S., down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007 but unchanged since 2009," Pew noted.
In Michigan, population trends there reflected the national pattern indicated by the
relatively stable number of unauthorized immigrants in recent years. The estimated number of illegal immigrants in Michigan also peaked in 2007 at 140,000, but was followed by four years of hovering around 110,000 before a slight uptick in 2012 to 120,000.
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