Illegal-Alien Burden on Taxpayers Dwarfs Cost of Deportation

CNN reported this week that the U.S. government spends more than $10,000 on average to deport each illegal alien, the implication being that taxpayers pay a heavy price for the removal of those in the country illegally.

But a group that advocates for enforcing immigration law says the cost of removal is a bargain...

“It costs a lot more to allow people to remain here,” says Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

How much more? FAIR estimates that the burden placed on U.S. taxpayers by the roughly 13 million illegal immigrants residing in the country stands at roughly $113 billion a year.

The biggest cost-driver is education, according to a detailed 2010 analysis from the organization. It costs more than $50 billion each year to educate illegal immigrant children and the children of illegal immigrants, researchers found — with most paid through local property taxes and by states, with the federal government chipping in more than $1 billion for Title I programs...

But the $113 billion likely doesn’t even cover all the costs associated with illegal immigration.

It doesn’t cover the cost to U.S. taxpayers, for example, to prosecute crimes committed by illegal aliens...