Illegal Immigration Costs Illinoisans $3.5 Billion a Year Finds New Study by FAIR

WASHINGTON, June 27  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While local politicians, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, work to expand the benefits and services Illinois provides to illegal aliens, a new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds that illegal immigration already costs the state $3.5 billion annually. The $3.5 billion annual price tag associated with illegal immigration, according to the report, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Illinoisans, covers the costs of only three basic state-provided services: K-12 education, publicly funded health care, and incarceration of illegal aliens who have committed other crimes after settling Illinois. In 2005, some 620,000 illegal aliens were estimated to live in Illinois.

Education represents the largest single component of Illinois' illegal alien fiscal liability -- about $3.1 billion a year. Statewide, FAIR estimates about 110,000 children are in the country illegally and an additional 205,000 are children born here to illegal aliens. Combined, these students represent 10 percent of public school kids. Publicly funded health care for illegal aliens costs the state about $340 million a year, while illegal aliens in state prisons drain another $55 million from state coffers. The typical native-headed household in Illinois pays an estimated $695 a year in taxes to cover the costs of just these three programs, concludes the report.

"The release of this report on the costs of illegal immigration comes as the U.S. Senate is debating a massive illegal alien amnesty bill, supported by both of Illinois' senators, that would dramatically increase costs in Illinois and all across the country," observed Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "Illegal aliens already pose a substantial cost burden to Illinois and other states, and those costs would grow exponentially as poorly skilled illegal aliens gain legal status in this country."

The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Illinoisans follows up on a study conducted by the Urban Institute in 1994, which limited its analysis to the same three state funded program areas. At the time, the Urban Institute estimated the illegal alien population to be 176,000, while the state itself placed the estimate at 270,000. The rapid growth of the illegal population has driven state costs ever higher.

"Illegal immigration in Illinois, and the costs associated with it are spiraling out of control, creating a fiscal black hole that is swallowing up the state's resources," said Stein. "Illinois, like a lot of other states, is struggling with failing and overcrowded schools, a collapsing public health care system, crumbling infrastructure and other serious problems. At the same time, illegal immigration is taking a greater and greater bite out of the state's budget every year.

"Unfortunately, many Illinois leaders have responded to the fiscally devastating influx of illegal immigrants by pandering to the special interests that benefit from illegal immigration at the expense of law-abiding, hard- working taxpayers," Stein concluded.

The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Illinoisans is available at http://www.fairus.org/. 

Federation for American Immigration Reform


CONTACT:  Jack Martin of FAIR, +1-202-328-7004



Web site:  http://www.fairus.org/