May 2008
The Federal Costs of Immigration
new study shows the American people are paying a heavy economic price to import tens of millions new immigrants every decade, a policy costing taxpayers more than $9,000 a year for each immigrant.
In the most extensive study of the economic impact of immigration on the federal government, the new 70-page report conducted by Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow Edwin S. Rubenstein found that the open door immigration policies imposed by U.S. elites cost the government's 15 major departments a startling $346 billion in fiscal year 2007. Rubenstein was the senior economist who directed in-depth studies of waste in the federal budget for the Grace Commission in the 1980s.
The new study, "The Fiscal Impact of Immigration: An Analysis of the Costs to 15 Federal Departments and Agencies," was published in the Winter 2007-2008 issue of Social Contract magazine.
The federal departments and agencies examined in the report include Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Interior, Justice, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transporation, Treasury, and the State Department as well as Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
"The federal government has never produced a comprehensive study of this issue," said Rubenstein. "Executive agencies are not required to do Fiscal Impact Statements for immigration policies. Even the immigration reform legislation last year contained not one word on its potential budgetary consequences."
He said the study was designed to fill that void by looking at "the total cost of immigration, the cost of providing for the 37 million legal and illegal immigrants in the country today. We believe every government agency, and most government programs, are impacted by immigration."
In public education, Rubenstein found that 3.8 million public school students are enrolled in classes to learn how to read and speak English. That increases education costs, especially for bilingual teachers and additional staff, by about $1,030 per student. That means immigration-related education costs are about $3.9 billion (3.8 million times $1.030).
At the Department of Justice, the study found that immigrant prisoners are an increasing financial burden. In 1980, federal and state penal systems held fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens. But in 2007, 27 percent of all inmates in federal correctional facilities were aliens, for a total cost of $1.5 billion. Rubenstein said his figures may be understated:
"A shortage of available prison capacity has forced federal authorities to release criminal aliens prematurely. Nationally an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes still walk the streets," he reported. (The Government Accountability Office says the average criminal alien is arrested 13 times, according to a report in Investor's Business Daily.)
