Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has signaled that funding for services for illegal immigrants is on the chopping block as the agency prepares to hack away at government spending.
The department, which is not an official part of the government, is expected to be empowered by President-elect Trump to audit and implement sweeping changes within government agencies.
DOGE called out U.S. spending on illegal immigration in an X post, saying it cost taxpayers $150.7 billion "in 2023 alone."
DOGE pointed out that, when adjusted for inflation, U.S. spending on illegal immigration in a single year is comparable to government spending during the entirety of World War I ($334 billion) and the Apollo space program ($257 billion), and significantly more than what was spent on the Manhattan Project ($30 billion), the Panama Canal ($15.2 billion), and the Hoover Dam ($1 billion).
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Musk also weighed in, posting on X that "the scale of spending on illegal immigration boggles the mind!"
The data referenced by DOGE is from a 2023 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR’s latest report, published in March 2023, estimated that the net cost of illegal immigration – including federal, state and local spending – was "at least" $150.7 billion, amounting to $1,156 per taxpayer. This was up by nearly $35 billion since 2017 when it was $116 billion.
FAIR said it landed on this number by "subtracting the tax revenue paid by illegal aliens – just under $32 billion – from the gross negative economic impact of illegal immigration, $182 billion." By its estimates, the federal government spent $66 billion while state and local expenditures amounted to well over $115 billion.
The U.S. government does not appear to have any recent estimates on how much taxpayer dollars are being spent on illegal immigrants.
Jessica Baxter, a representative for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, told Fox News Digital that the office "does not have any recent work addressing the federal government’s overall cost estimate on immigration-related efforts."
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"We have a few reports that provide information on costs associated with specific border security or immigration-related efforts, such as estimates of costs for incarceration of noncitizens, but these do not provide overall estimates," she said. "The two reports I’m referring to are from 2018 and 2011, so the data is somewhat dated. Our team is currently working on an update to the 2018 report, but the work is underway, and the report isn’t expected to issue any time soon."
Julie Kirchner, FAIR’s executive director, told Fox News Digital that the $150.7 billion number is actually a "very conservative estimate" and is likely much higher now that the undocumented migrant population has continued to rise.
"The population we cited in the study was 15.5 million, we now estimate that it's over 16.8 million, and we're in the process right now of doing another estimate on the illegal alien population, and I'm sure it will be higher," she explained. "So, we know the costs are going to go up."
She also said the 2023 study did not even include state and local spending on sheltering migrants. Though DOGE’s focus is primarily on the federal government, she said state and local spending – including on education, health care and incarceration – accounts for the largest share of government spending on illegal immigrants.
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Though exact numbers are hard to come by on the local level, America’s cities are carrying a large part of the burden. New York, the country’s biggest city by population, estimates that with nearly 100,000 asylum seekers having entered the city and "with no end in sight," it will spend more than $12 billion through fiscal year 2025. Chicago, meanwhile, has reportedly spent $400 million on migrant services in the last two years.
"There are more and more states using state taxpayer dollars to subsidize illegal immigration," she said. "What we are seeing is state and locals are being forced to absorb all of these costs."
She believes that once Trump retakes office, DOGE and the administration should immediately work to end government health care plans for illegals and close the loophole allowing illegal migrants to get income tax and child tax credits. By doing this, she believes DOGE can save taxpayers around the country "billions and billions of dollars each year."
"There is a lot we can do," she went on. "They are taking our own tax dollars and giving illegal aliens benefits and encouraging more illegal immigration. It is a crazy, crazy scenario where we're seeing people welcome lawlessness, and it's got to stop, and we're hopeful that the DOGE will."
