Cost of Illegal Immigration in North Dakota

North Dakota had fewer than 5,000 illegal immigrants in 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, but North Dakotans still faced millions of dollars in costs of illegal immigration.

Illegal immigrants made up about 0.3 percent of the state’s population and about 0.5 percent of the labor force in North Dakota. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy reported that illegal immigrants paid some $5.5 million in state and local taxes in 2012.

However, illegal immigration costs North Dakota taxpayers $33 million a year, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which analyzes the effect of immigration throughout the U.S.

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Yearly illegal immigration costs for the state include $3.4 million for health care, $1.9 million for criminal justice activities, $3.3 million on welfare, and $6 million for additional state and local operating costs.

The largest tax burden on North Dakota residents for illegal immigration is $18.5 million a year to educate the children of illegal aliens, FAIR reported.

An assessment by FAIR for school enrollment during 2010 concluded that North Dakotans faced rising costs for limited English proficiency programs aimed at educating legal and illegal immigrants. FAIR reported that illegal aliens cost North Dakota some $15.4 million for K-12 education and $3.1 million for English proficiency instruction programs.

Illegal immigration costs each native-born headed household $121 annually, according to FAIR.

Some organizations point to the advantages of having immigrants and illegal immigrants as residents. For example, the American Immigration Council stated that legal status for unauthorized immigrants would increase their tax contributions for North Dakota from $5.5 million to $6.4 million. The Perryman Group concluded that the state would lose $55.1 million in economic activity if illegal immigrants disappeared from North Dakota.

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While illegal immigration takes a toll on North Dakota taxpayers for education, more immigrants are receiving higher education degrees to offer help to the state. College degrees for immigrants increased by 58.7 percent from 2000 to 2011, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

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