Study: 14.3M Illegal Aliens Living in U.S., Costing Americans $132B a Year

An annually released report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that that illegal population living in the U.S. has risen nearly two million in two years, now standing at about 14.3 million illegal aliens.

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The rise in the illegal population, FAIR analysts find, means illegal aliens are costing American taxpayers nearly $132 billion every year. That fiscal burden to Americans is set to grow even larger without major immigration-reducing reforms, according to the study.

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The FAIR study is among many that have attempted to estimate the illegal population living in the U.S. Researchers from Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have estimated an illegal population of 22 million, while Pew Research Center regularly cites an illegal population of 11 to 12 million.

As noted previously, the FAIR study confirms that the illegal population is largely concentrated in six states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois — four of which are sanctuary states where criminal illegal aliens are shielded from deportation.

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Illegal immigration is not only fiscally burdensome on American taxpayers to the sum of billions every year, but an increase of foreign workers in the U.S. labor market due to legal immigration levels — where about 1.2 million immigrants are admitted every year — reduces the wages of America’s working and middle class. Conversely, less immigration increases Americans’ wages.

Extensive research by economist George Borjas and analyst Steven Camarota reveals that the country’s current mass legal immigration system burdens working and middle class Americans while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth every year to major employers and newly arrived immigrants. Similarly, immigration keeps wages low for employers and stagnant for employees.

For every one-percent increase in the immigrant portion of American workers’ occupations, their weekly wages are cut by about 0.5 percent, Camarota finds. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.75 percent.

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