Washington Times: the Border Crisis Costs Taxpayers $150 Billion and Counting
On Wednesday, May 8, the House Budget Committee held a hearing entitled “The Cost of the Border Crisis.”The hearing focused on the cost of the crisis at our southern border at the federal, state, and local levels.
In a recent interview with The Washington Times, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) highlighted the need to secure the border and to examine the true “Cost of the Border Crisis.”
Word on the Street:
Via The Washington Times:
- “The total net cost to the U.S. is more than $150 billion a year, with the lion’s share of that going to educate children who are here illegally themselves or whose parents are here without authorization, the Budget Committee says, citing data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform.”
- “Chairman Jodey Arrington, Texas Republican, told The Times the $150 billion figure is a ‘conservative estimate.’ He said the burden falls heavily on states and local governments, who according to the data spend more than $73 billion a year on education, nearly $22 billion on law enforcement and almost $19 billion on medical care.”
- “’And state and local governments don’t borrow from China, like the federal government, and they can’t print money, so the disproportionate burden here is on state and local governments,’ he said. ‘They either have to cut services to their citizens, or they have to raise taxes.’”
- “FAIR calculates that illegal immigrants bring in $32 billion in tax revenue to governments. But the gross cost of illegal immigration is $182 billion, covering spending on law enforcement, education, medical care and welfare programs at all levels.”
- “’We would have well enough resources if we weren’t spending $150 billion a year to provide the necessary immigration enforcement and border security,’ Mr. Arrington said. ‘In fact, $150 billion is almost twice as much as we spend on the Department of Homeland Security.’”
The Bottom Line:
President Biden’s reckless border policies have cost American taxpayers $150.7 Billion and counting. Americans cannot afford to continue down this road of fiscal failure.
Read a recap of the “Cost of the Border Crisis” hearing HERE.
Watch Chairman Arrington’s opening statement HERE.
Watch Chairman Arrington on Fox News discussing the “Cost of the Border Crisis” HERE.
