Illegal Immigration Costs North Carolina More than $1.2 Billion Annually Finds New Study from FAIR

(Washington, D.C. January 13, 2009) A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds that illegal immigration costs North Carolina more than $1.3 billion a year. An additional $1.2 billion earned in the state is denied to the North Carolina economy by illegal aliens who sent remittances abroad. The report, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to North Carolinians looks at just three essential state services and programs: education, public health, and incarceration of criminal illegal aliens. Those impacts are:

• K-12 Education. The estimated 120,000 children of illegal aliens in public schools cost taxpayers more than $1 billion annually.
• Health care. Uncompensated health care for illegal aliens costs North Carolina an estimated $130 million a year.
• Incarceration. Besides the human and economic costs of crimes by criminal illegal aliens, incarcerating the perpetrators carries a $49 million annual price tag.

According the report, tax collection from North Carolina's illegal alien population amounts to about $225 million annually. However, if those jobs currently held by illegal aliens were filled by legal workers, often at higher wages, those taxes - and probably additional taxes - would be collected anyway.

The release of The Costs of Illegal Immigration to North Carolinians coincides with worsening fiscal news for the state. While the state spends more than $1.3 billion on services for illegal aliens, North Carolina is faced with a budget shortfall of $3 billion - about 10 percent of the total budget.

"The staggering $1.3 billion price tag for North Carolinians demonstrates the extent to which illegal immigration has become a nationwide phenomenon and a burden on American taxpayers in every region of the country," noted Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "It is a burden that is especially onerous given the impact that the current economic crisis has already imposed on millions of American families and the havoc it is playing with state and local budgets."

After years of ignoring North Carolina's growing illegal immigration problem, the state now has more local police trained to identify and detain illegal aliens than all but one state, and has ended the practice of granting driver's licenses to people who cannot prove they are legal residents. "As has been demonstrated in other states, consistent state-based policies can reverse the flow of illegal migration. North Carolina's new governor, Bev Perdue, can ease the burdens on North Carolina taxpayers and reduce the state's budget shortfall by continuing and strengthening state efforts to discourage illegal immigration," Stein concluded.