(The Center Square) – A new report by the Congressional Budget Office reveals that the millions of migrants who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration cost taxpayers $9.8 billion in 2023 alone.
The CBO’s findings sharply contradict its 2024 estimate that the migration surge would increase federal revenue by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.
State and local governments that received migrants in 2023 saw their revenues increase a cumulative $10.1 billion, but their cumulative spending far outpaced that, rising to $19.3 billion. The costs resulted from increased funding for public education, shelter, and other services for migrants, as well as border security and incarceration.
Since 2021, more than 11 million foreign nationals illegally entered the U.S., as The Center Square reported. The CBO estimated that 4.4 million of those migrants – the “surge population” – were residing in the U.S. on the taxpayers’ dime in 2023.
CBO found that states used a total of $1 billion from five federal programs to help finance the “surge population,” using Medicaid, SNAP, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Supplemental Security Income funds to help foreign nationals.
“After years of claiming illegal immigration saved money, the CBO is confirming what we’ve said all along: Biden’s open border […] cost billions of taxpayer dollars and drained the safety net programs on which vulnerable American citizens rely,” House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said Monday.
While New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Colorado willingly spent a cumulative $3.3 billion in 2023 to provide food, shelter, healthcare, and other benefits to migrants, other states were forced to spend more for border security. The CBO estimated that Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California spent $2.7 billion that year on border security alone.
Arrington said the results highlight the need for lawmakers to pass the multitrillion-dollar Republican budget reconciliation package, named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Among other things, the policy megabill would help implement the Trump administration’s immigration agenda by allocating $46.5 billion for the construction of a high-tech southern border wall. It also authorizes over $50 billion to construct more detainment facilities and recruit border personnel.
“This is just another reason why passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – the largest single investment in border security and national defense – is so important,” Arrington said. “We must ensure President Trump has the resources he needs to permanently secure the border and do the first and most important job of the federal government – provide for the common defense.”
