Illegal immigration cost $150.7 billion in 2023, U.S. taxpayer paying $1,156 each.

Illegal immigration cost $150.7 billion in 2023, with the average U.S. taxpayer paying $1,156 each. Get them out!

The FAIR study, released in March last year, documented the financial toll of illegal immigration on the U.S., taking into account factors like emergency medical care, incarcerating illegal aliens in local jails, and federal budgets that pay out billions in welfare every year, pegging the net annual cost at $150.7 billion.

Arriving at the figure by subtracting the estimated $32 billion of tax contributions made by illegal immigrants, FAIR said the economic impact would have otherwise been $182 billion. In 2017, the U.S. spent roughly $116 billion on illegal immigration, suggesting that the problem is a growing one.

To contextualize the number, the $150.7 billion spent on illegal immigration last year is more than the total gross domestic product (GDP) of Mississippi ($146.7 billion in 2023), New Mexico ($131.5 billion), Idaho ($119.8 billion), and is more than the GDP's Wyoming and Vermont combined, at $50.74 billion and $43.38 billion, respectively.