According to a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the annual cost to taxpayers at the federal, state and local levels is $116 billion.
The costs examined are those associated with the 12.5 million illegal immigrants and the 4.2 million citizen children of the illegal immigrants.
The comprehensive report looked at many different areas that end up costing taxpayers money. According to the FAIR Study:
The report, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” examines the cost of illegal immigration through a detailed analysis of federal, state and local programs that are available to the nation’s illegal immigrant population, their U.S.-born children, or accessed via fraud. The study tallies the impact on education, medical, justice/enforcement, welfare and other government programs. The report notes that the $116 billion cost of illegal immigration falls on state and local taxpayers disproportionately – by a ratio of roughly 2 to 1 – with state and local expenditures totaling $88.9 billion and Federal expenditures totaling $45.8 billion, with only approximately $19 billionrecouped in taxes.
The amount of taxes paid by the illegal immigrants that would help offset their cost to taxpayers was also examined by FAIR:
The report also tallies the estimated taxes paid by the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants in the workforce, estimating that 35 percent of them are operating in the underground economy and noting that these workers have no payroll taxes deducted from their earnings. The study finds that taxes paid by illegal immigrants are five times as likely to wind up in federal coffers than in state and local treasuries. Total taxes paid to the federal government by illegal immigrants totaled $15.4 billion, with state and local governments receiving approximately $3.5 billion, even though these entities bear a disproportionate share of the burden.
Illegal immigration has always been an issue in this country, but the new findings by FAIR show that the need for reform is immediate.
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