AMAC EXCLUSIVE
As House Republicans consider new legislation to guard against the threat of non-citizens voting in elections, urgent action is also needed to stop the federal government from raiding Americans’ pocketbooks to fund welfare and other programs for illegal aliens.
While estimates vary widely, there are likely at least 15 million individuals illegally residing in the United States following four years of the worst border crisis in history under Joe Biden. According to some calculations, the number of illegal aliens in the country has already more than doubled under Biden, and could double again if he wins another term.
The tragic human cost of this invasion, seen clearly in horrific violent crimes like the murder of Laken Riley and the record high number of fentanyl overdoses last year, is obvious.
But the border crisis is also decimating American families and communities in ways that don’t make as many headlines. One of the most harmful is the sheer financial cost to American taxpayers of taking in tens of millions of illegal immigrants.
According to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), U.S. taxpayers are now shelling out at least $150.7 billion annually for illegal aliens – a figure greater than the annual GDP of 15 states, and equivalent to more than $1.5 trillion over a 10-year budget window.
Put another way, each illegal alien costs U.S. taxpayers about $8,776 each year. That means each U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for about $956 every year to pay for services for illegal aliens.
In some states, that number is even higher. In California, the cost per illegal alien to state taxpayers is $7,074. In Massachusetts it’s $7,396. In Hawaii it’s a staggering $9,178.
While pro-immigration groups have argued that illegal aliens still pay some taxes, FAIR found that “taxes paid by illegal aliens only cover around 17.2 percent of the costs they create for American citizens.”
Many of these costs come from welfare programs. Although illegal aliens themselves are ineligible for most welfare, their U.S.-born children are not – in effect creating a loophole allowing millions of illegal aliens to obtain taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.
According to testimony delivered to Congress earlier this year from Steven Camarota, Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, “59 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants use one or more major welfare programs, compared to 39 percent of households headed by the U.S.-born.” Camarota also reported that the lifetime cost of each illegal alien to U.S. taxpayers is about $68,000.
More specifically, according to FAIR, each year illegal aliens with U.S.-born children receive about $5.8 billion in food stamps, $1.6 billion from the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, $1.4 billion from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, and $1 billion from the WIC program.
But it’s not just illegal alien welfare that’s impacting Americans’ finances. The children of illegal aliens, many of whom qualify for special programs for children who don’t speak English as their first language, cost the education system about $73 billion per year. While children deserve an opportunity to receive an education, it is only right that American taxpayer dollars should go toward funding the education of the children of American taxpaying citizens. The populations of illegal aliens coming in across the southern border are overwhelmingly a net-drain on local resources and social services.
Taxpayers are also being forced to shell out their hard-earned dollars to pay for medical care for illegal aliens. The total cost of just improper Medicaid payouts to illegal aliens is estimated to be north of $8 billion annually. As of this March, six states also offer fully state-funded coverage to eligible residents regardless of immigration status.
The added strain on the justice system from Biden’s migrant invasion is also costing Americans. States are now spending about $3.1 billion annually on border security, while the federal government spends $1.6 billion per year on incarcerated illegal aliens.
Numbers aside, news stories on the Biden administration providing smartphones to illegal aliens and housing them in luxury accommodations are also sure to elicit outrage from hard-working Americans struggling under the weight of inflation and a stagnant economy.
Retired Professor of Economics Theo Hiltraud Gutermuth, a former German and Italian university lecturer who also led a German Christian Democrat committee on migration analysis in the 1980s, told me, “America has to decide soon whether it can assimilate this inflow.”
“Until the end of the Cold War, immigrants were typically hesitant about benefiting from welfare,” Professor Gutermuth noted. “They had their pride, but this has changed,” he added, suggesting that the U.S. should consider a temporary pause in immigration. “This solution is not only politically sound but also economically viable,” said Professor Gutermuth, expressing his concern that “this immense burden is becoming unsustainable, even for America.”
With Biden in office, the surge of illegal aliens into the country will almost certainly continue. But as American voters increasingly feel the weight of Biden’s border crisis in their communities and more importantly in their wallets, they will likely be eager to make a change in leadership.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
