Taxpayers spent $150 billion on government services and support for the 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, with most of the cost going to state and local governments, according to a new study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
These costs have been growing since 2017, when the price for illegal immigration was at about $116 billion, but the cost to U.S. taxpayers rose by $35 billion in five years, the New York Post reported Thursday.
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And the costs will keep growing as the numbers increase of people entering the country illegally, FAIR spokesperson Ira Mehlman says.
"As long as we keep allowing millions of people to come into the country illegally every year, it's obviously going to continue to increase the costs," he said. "This seems to be just sort of basic, common sense. If you were going to be bringing in lots and lots of people, many of them working off the books for very low wages, there are going to be enormous social costs incurred."
The total spending reached $182 billion, but illegal migrants' taxes totaled about $32 billion, leaving the $150 billion figure.
"The argument that illegal aliens pay more in taxes than they use in services, it's completely misleading," said Mehlman.
The extra costs are hitting several states hard, including Massachusetts, where GOP leaders are blaming a $1 billion hole in state funds on the Democrat-controlled government.
The state's Republican Party Tuesday filed a Freedom of Information Act request to demand Gov. Maura Healey release the state's full migrant budget while accusing Democrats of siphoning off money to deal with the crisis.
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"The Healey-Driscoll Administration has shrouded nearly $1 billion spent in secrecy, leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark," the party's Amy Carnevale said. "They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire and EMT."
According to FAIR estimates, the cost in state services in Massachusetts for migrants in the United States illegally and their children was closer to $3 billion.
New York's comptroller's office has estimated that the migrant crisis is going to cost state taxpayers $4.3 billion through 2025, with New York City taxpayers being hit with a $3 billion bill in fiscal year 2024 alone.
FAIR's estimates for New York state were much higher, though, putting the cost for an estimated 1.45 million immigrants and their children in the state at $10 billion in 2023.
The differences may be in how the assessments are conducted, however. FAIR included all state services that are used, such as education, medical expenses, and law enforcement, while most in-state estimates focus on just emergency housing and aid.
The differences in tax expenses compared to revenues also led to discrepancies between what the states were reporting and the FAIR reporting, which also included costs of U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, a cost that most state reports didn't factor.
The FAIR reports further showed that all states, not just large ones, are being impacted by the costs of caring for illegal migrants and their children.
West Virginia spent the least of the 50 states, but still, the costs totaled more than $33 million.
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Just seven states spent less than $100 million to care for the migrants, but the bills for 19 states reached more than $1 billion.
California spent the most, $31 billion, followed by Texas, $13 billion; Florida, $8 billion, and then New Jersey and New York.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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