WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security majority, led by Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), released its interim report on the fourth phase of the Committee’s comprehensive oversight investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of the crisis at the Southwest border and how the policies of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden have precipitated the worst border crisis in American history. This latest report documents the staggering financial costs of the unprecedented border crisis on American taxpayers.

Read the full interim report here, and a factsheet on the report here.

Read more in The New York Post.

“It is unconscionable for Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden to force the American people to pick up the tab for the crisis their border policies created,” Chairman Green said. “Communities across this country, from the smallest border town to our largest city, are dealing with depleted emergency resources, public housing crises, overwhelmed public-school systems, damaged or destroyed property, and overwhelming law enforcement costs—burdens these hardworking taxpayers were never prepared for, and should not be forced to pay. Today’s report outlines the devastating costs of refusing to enforce our nation’s laws and reaffirms the Homeland majority’s urgent demand for Biden and Mayorkas to end the failed policies that are threatening to bankrupt our cities and states.” 

The report documents in explicit detail the numerous ways that the Biden-Mayorkas border crisis has forced Americans to pay the bill for historic levels of illegal immigration:

• Illegal aliens represent a major strain on local health care systems, as federal law requires that hospitals and emergency rooms provide these individuals with care, even if they are uninsured and cannot pay for it.
  • Yuma Regional Medical Center President and CEO Robert Trenschel testified to the House Committee on Homeland Security in February 2023, that his facility had incurred more than $26 million in unreimbursed costs caring for illegal aliens.
  • New York City hospitals have recorded approximately 30,000 visits from illegal aliens in the past year.
  • Medicaid expenditures on “emergency services” for illegal aliens have exceeded $12 billion just since fiscal year 2021.
• The law enforcement costs associated with illegal immigration are not just those directly associated with border security, such as the CBP budget, but the increased costs to state and local law enforcement.
  • In Arizona’s Cochise County, “border related booking costs” in 2022 totaled $4.3 million, with 1,578 suspects being booked into the county jail for “border-related crimes.”
  • The state of Florida spends more than $100 million every year to incarcerate criminal aliens in its state prisons, with very little of this cost being reimbursed by the federal government.
  • New York City police officers could lose upwards of $700 million in overtime pay if Mayor Eric Adams’ suggested five-percent pay cuts across the board, in order to pay the costs of illegal aliens arriving in the city, take effect.
• Costs of providing education services to illegal alien children, or the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, represent enormous expenditures for the states and the federal government.
  • Students with limited proficiency in English represent additional costs for education systems. One report found that the cost to educate these students rose to around $78 billion last year.
• The devastation to private property, particularly ranches and farming operations along the Southwest border, has represented an unprecedented and daily challenge for the citizens of border states.
  • Ranchers are often forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to repair fences damaged by smugglers or illegal aliens trespassing on their property. One rancher has said it costs him $26,000 to repair one mile of fencing.  
• Cities and states are assuming massive costs to house and provide services to illegal aliens being released by DHS into their communities rather than being detained.
  • New York City is on track to spend more than $12 billion by 2025 on the tens of thousands of illegal aliens arriving in the city since spring 2022.
  • Chicago is spending more than $20 million per month to “house and support” illegal aliens.
  • Costs for Washington, D.C., were expected to exceed $52 million by October 2023.
  • Total costs just to provide services like these to the illegal aliens released under Mayorkas’ policies, along with the 1.7 million known gotaways, could exceed $451 billion per year, per one estimate.

In the report, the Committee states,“Biden and Mayorkas’ policies have forced substantial extra costs on state and local governments across the country, putting cash-strapped jurisdictions already struggling with limited resources in an even tighter bind as they scramble to cover these unplanned-for demands. … It is morally unacceptable that American taxpayer dollars should be funneled to those who violate our laws and demand expansive, taxpayer-funded benefits like education, health care, housing, and more. Many of these individuals will likely represent a drain on American society for the remainder of their days in the United States, constantly absorbing more benefits from the state than they ever contribute—to say nothing of the fact that they have no lawful basis to remain in the country to begin with. Mayorkas’ policies have enabled this mass waste and abuse of taxpayer resources. His policies and actions have encouraged millions of people to cross our border illegally. His department has released millions of illegal aliens into the United States rather than detaining or removing them, as required by law. And there is no end in sight.”

Background:

To gather more information about the financial impacts of Secretary Mayorkas’ open-borders policies on Americans across the country, the Committee held a hearing to obtain testimony from communities deeply impacted by the unprecedented flood of illegal aliens across the Southwest border. The testimony of Jonathan Lines, county supervisor for Yuma County, Arizona, and Joseph Borelli, minority leader of the New York City Council, confirmed that as this crisis continues, border communities and America’s largest cities are dealing with emergency resources being stretched thin, from hospitals to 911 call centers, as they provide care to illegal aliens in addition to their citizens. Communities have had to deal with an influx of new school-aged children, many of whom require special attention due to limited proficiency in English or other needs. Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers have had to spend increasingly scarce resources on dealing with the consequences of illegal immigration in their communities. America’s farmers and ranchers have also been forced to bear the cost of incalculable damage caused by illegal aliens trespassing on and damaging their property.

Read the Committee’s interim report on the first phase of the investigation, covering Secretary Mayorkas’ dereliction of duty, here. The Committee’s second interim report on unprecedented cartel control of the Southwest border, can be read here. The Committee’s third interim report on the human cost of the border crisis can be read here.

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