We have elected officials telling us with straight faces that illegal aliens benefit the country more than they do a burdern.
While that has always seemed counter-intuitive — or even objectively stupid, especially when we hear elected Democrats invoking states of emergency when even a handful of illegal aliens show up on their doorstep (for example, places like NYC have said they are now paying about $5M a day to keep up with the costs) — there has never been a formal research document we could drop in their lap so support what we intuitively believe to be true.
Thanks to the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR), we now have some hard stats to work from. Introducing: The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers | 2023
Here’s a quick summary of the big takeaway:
More than 15.5 million illegal aliens live in the United States today, costing American taxpayers over $150 billion annually, analysis from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates.
The FAIR analysis estimates that taxpayers pay some $182 billion in annual costs for illegal aliens at the federal, state, and local levels. That cost is only minimally made up by illegal aliens contributing $32 billion to the economy, making the annual net cost more than $150 billion.
Put another way, illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children cost taxpayers nearly $1,200 every year. —FAIR
Since Biden is letting in record numbers of illegal immigrants yearly with his defacto open-border policy, that price tag gets higher yearly. For example, last year was estimated to be $7 Billion higher than the previous year.
“… in just 5 years, the cost of illegal immigration has increased by nearly $35 billion,” the FAIR analysis states. ” This rapid increase is a consequence of the ongoing border crisis and a lack of effective immigration enforcement.”
The booming cost of illegal immigration to taxpayers comes as President Joe Biden’s administration has implemented an expansive Catch and Release network, which includes a parole pipeline that provides border crossers and illegal aliens with work permits once they are released into the U.S. interior.
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project revealed that many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with the Biden administration have sent tens of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens to all 50 states. –Fair
Aside from all the other reasons to oppose the unilateral abandoning of any principles of defending the borders from illegal entry, the $150B / year price tag taxpayers must shoulder is a huge one that should be addressed in Congress and the press.
Unfortunately, the traditional press is too busy shielding the government from criticism to engage in any themselves.
Cross-posted with Clash Daily
