Migrant Costs to Exceed $451 Billion

President Joe Biden’s decision to throw open the country’s southern border and use the resources of the federal government to funnel millions of migrants into the U.S. will come at a cost of $451 billion, or about $1,000 for every taxpayer, according to a report by the House Committee on Homeland Security.

“It is unconscionable for Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden to force the American people to pick up the tab for the crisis their border policies created,” said committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tennessee). “Communities across this country, from the smallest border town to our largest city, are dealing with depleted emergency resources, public housing crises, overwhelmed public-school systems, damaged or destroyed property, and overwhelming law enforcement costs—burdens these hardworking taxpayers were never prepared for, and should not be forced to pay.”

The problem is particularly acute in New York, the city of choice for migrants responding to offers of sanctuary by Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul. An announcement by Adams that he will have to dramatically cut police, education, and other services to pay for the foreigners he invited in has left taxpayers in shock. Even as he refuses to repeal his “official” declaration of New York as a sanctuary city,” the mayor says the migrant crisis “will destroy” New York.

“Today’s report outlines the devastating costs of refusing to enforce our nation’s laws and reaffirms the Homeland majority’s urgent demand for Biden and Mayorkas to end the failed policies that are threatening to bankrupt our cities and states,” Congressman Green said, pointing out that New York City hospitals have recorded approximately 30,000 visits from illegal aliens in the past year, costs that will have to be borne by the taxpayers. “City police officers could lose upwards of $700 million in overtime pay if Mayor Eric Adams’ suggested five-percent pay cuts across the board, in order to pay the costs of illegal aliens arriving in the city, take effect,” he said in a report that singles out the Big Apple.

New York, which Adams says is already on the hook for at least $12 billion in immigrant costs, is far from alone. Yuma Medical Center officials in Arizona testified to the house committee that their facility has incurred more than $26 million in unreimbursed costs caring for illegal aliens. In Cochise County, border-related criminal bookings totaled $4.3 million in 2022, with 1,578 suspects being processed into the county jail. The state of Florida spends more than $100 million every year to incarcerate criminal aliens in its state prisons, with very little of this cost reimbursed by the federal government. Chicago is spending more than $20 million per month to “house and support” illegal aliens, while costs for Washington, D.C. were expected to exceed $52 million by the end of the year.

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Nationwide, Medicaid expenditures on “emergency services” for illegal aliens have exceeded $12 billion just since 2021. Students with limited proficiency in English represent additional costs for education systems, with a reported cost of around $78 billion last year for students representing more than 120 different countries. Total costs to provide services to the illegal aliens released into the United States under the Biden administration, along with the 1.7 million known “got-aways,” could exceed $451 billion per year, the report concludes. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and Yale University, between 16.8 million and 29 million illegal immigrants currently reside in the U.S., 3.8 million of which have entered since President Biden took office in 2021. The president has already asked Congress to approve $14 billion in additional funding to aid the processing of migrants and reimburse state and local governments and non-governmental organizations for providing other services.

On Long Island, officials are bracing for an onslaught as Mayor Adams attempts to relocate upwards of 130,000 of the migrants he’s responsible for to the suburbs. Both existing and newly-constructed city shelters have reached a breaking point, and a massive tent city he set up with Gov. Hochul at Floyd Bennett Field was a multi-million dollar failure as the migrants they transported to the desolate facility refused to get off the bus. More than half of the hotel space in the city is inhabited by migrants, and an escalating crime wave has caused the quality of life in New York to plummet, leaving residents outraged. As the mayor’s cuts to law enforcement and education start to kick in, matters can only get worse.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Long Island), a member of the Homeland Security Committee, called for the impeachment of the homeland secretary over the migrant mess. “America, public safety, and our rule of law deserve better than Alejandro Mayorkas, whose failed leadership has resulted in over 7.6 million illegal crossings and over 200,000 American fentanyl deaths during his short tenure,” LaLota said. “Mayorkas has turned his back on our hardworking Border Patrol Agents and betrayed the American people, costing American lives. It’s time to impeach and, more importantly, remove Secretary Mayorkas.”