By Mike Scruggs
In 2014, the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) released a report entitled The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on North Carolinians. Their estimate was a whopping $2.0 Billion per year. This included $1.3 Billion for the education of the children of illegal immigrants, including $299 million per year for supplemental English instruction for 90,000 children.
The state pays approximately 71 percent of this, and county and local governments pay 29 percent. Healthcare for unlawful immigrants ran to $232 million per year. Public assistance ran to $79 million and general service use ran to $212 million. Law enforcement and justice costs were estimated at $216 million. These were the easier things to estimate. Not included in law enforcement and justice was the actual cost of crime perpetrated on North Carolinians by illegal immigrants. How can you measure the pain of crimes when loss of life, severe injury, or sexual assault are involved? There is an organization in North Carolina that tracks the human costs. See this tragic accounting for yourself at the NCFire website, www.ncfire.info.
A large part of the $2.0 Billion cost is paid for by county and local governments, but $2.0 billion is equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the annual State budge of approximately $21 billion. North Carolina citizen households pay approximately $578 annually to support illegal immigration. Politicians resist acknowledging this, but you still get the bill. It is just not a separate billing marked “illegal immigration maintenance.”
FAIR’s estimate of the fiscal costs of illegal immigration is in the general range of cost estimates by the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, and the Heritage Foundation. In fact, the Heritage Foundation produced a lengthy report in 2013, giving this revealing statistic:
Unlawful immigrant households receive $14,387 more in annual benefits and services than they pay in all forms of tax. This is essentially an indirect taxpayer paid subsidy to companies that use illegal labor.
h/t John P
And trust me when I say there are North Carolina politicians in office this very minute who have a direct financial incentive to aid and abet this invasion.
Not a dime of that money is “paid” for by state, county, or local .govs. It ALL is paid for by the TAXPAYERS in the state.