Record numbers in illegal immigration have resulted in United States taxpayers bearing the burden of tens of billions of dollars going toward paying for migrants and their families.
The federal government is at a political standstill following Senate Republicans' rebuke of a $118 southern border bill claimed by advocates to be among the most comprehensive immigration reform in four decades. The bill included emergency powers for the federal government to deter migrants in large numbers, changes in asylum laws in addition to tens of billions in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Conservative critics singled out a particular provision requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to shut down the U.S. border only if migrant crossings exceeded a 5,000 daily average in a given week, deemed by House Speaker Mike Johnson to be a non-starter in his conference. Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, also expressed opposition.
With no new legislation in place and more than 1 million migrant encounters at the U.S. border since the new fiscal year began on October 1, states like Texas are leading the way in trying to enforce their own laws. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said deployment of his state's National Guard has reduced daily encounters from a couple thousand or more to less than a dozen per day.
A detailed report published by the nonpartisan Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) details the number of illegal migrants in all 50 states, and how taxpayers individually and statewide are subsidizing such costs because of governmental inaction.
California, Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey had the most "illegal aliens," as well as the most "illegal aliens" who also have children living in the U.S.
The tax burden for Californians far exceeded every other state, collectively costing residents about $22.82 billion, with the cost increasing to $30.93 billion when taking into account children.
Texas, currently caught in a maelstrom with the federal government and President Joe Biden's administration, has endured the second-highest cost, totaling about $9.94 billion and $13.36 billion, respectively.
The total net cost of illegal immigration on states and residents exceeds $100 billion.
The report was first published last March but is continually updated, according to FAIR President Daniel Stein.
He told Newsweek via phone on Friday that statistics composing the 91-page report are difficult to come by and take a long time to compute because each state has different systems in place, plus various lawsuits occurring nationwide to keep some data about immigrants clandestine.
"It's an intensive, laborious process because the states do not intentionally keep information, or are hiding it, if you will, to state taxpayers for these direct and indirect fiscal costs," Stein said.
The big challenge is that local and state taxpayers pay for the costs, though most statutes come from the federal level, he added, creating distance between "those responsible for a policy and those paying for it."
Even states that have sent National Guard troops to the border in support of Texas and Abbott are passing on costs to taxpayers.
The children associated with illegal immigrants refer to children born in the U.S. who are technically U.S. citizens, he added.
Stein has worked on the issue professionally for some 45 years, testifying dozens of times in front of Congress. The issue of immigration has hit a "fever pitch" as of late that he said he hasn't quite seen before to the point in which average Americans are more educated than ever on issues like presidential powers, work authorization and asylum.
In the past, he said political pundits and policy makers believed they could "buy off the public with sham solutions," citing the failed Senate bill this week.
"In a sense, Biden has shifted the entire debate onto a new center of gravity, onto a new hinge," Stein said. "The Overton window has shifted and people are going, 'This is a serious issue and the entire balance of our society—this cannot be sustained.'"
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
