An audit report from a reliably Republican state has revealed that taxpayers spent more than $100 million per year caring for illegal aliens.
Illegal immigration costs Mississippi state taxpayers over $100 million per year, according to a new analysis from my office released today.
Think about what our economy would be like if we put that money to roads, cops, tax cuts—the stuff that matters.
Our study comes on the…
— Shad White (@shadwhite) August 19, 2024
According to the report from the Mississippi state auditor, the red state has been spending more than $100 million on caring for the more than 22,000 illegal aliens estimated to live in the state, with costs consistently rising every year — especially for giving a free education to illegal aliens’ children. The costs broken down include $25 million in taxpayer funding for illegal aliens’ children’s education, $77 million for illegal aliens’ healthcare, and at least $1.7 million to fund the incarceration of illegal alien criminals.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) slammed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for forcing his state to fund illegal aliens, declaring the cost an “intentional failure” from the Biden-Harris administration.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Reeves explained that states “are being forced to step up and pay for the Biden-Harris administration’s intentional failure to secure our border, and Mississippi is no exception.”
Kamala Harris has been a disaster as border czar and is actually making the situation worse.
Securing our border starts with electing Donald Trump in November.https://t.co/vQfcRyW2BS pic.twitter.com/JTKbB2yM4Q
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) August 27, 2024
“Their dangerous immigration policies are endangering Americans and putting enormous financial strain on states all across our country — and it’s long past time to put a stop to it,” the Republican governor argued.
Reeves also warned that Harris’ consistent failure to secure the border means that electing her as president in November would be a grave mistake that would only exacerbate the border crisis.
“It’s clear Kamala Harris isn’t up to fixing the administration’s self-inflicted problems at the border. She’s been a disaster as border czar and is actually making the situation worse. Securing our border starts with electing Donald Trump in November,” he said.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, who authored the report, also condemned the illegal alien crisis — pointing out that the problem “spiraling out of control and is costing taxpayers millions.”
“Our public schools, hospitals, and prisons will continue to lose massive sums of money that we could have spent on our own citizens if this problem is not solved,” White added.
The state auditor also made sure to note that it is nearly impossible to find precise figures about the cost Mississippi taxpayers are forced to pay to care for illegal aliens due to a myriad of factors, including the fact that schools are forbidden from reporting how many illegal alien children they serve. Without that data, White was forced to use general figures from the University of Mississippi, which has projected that there are at least 2,500 illegal alien children enrolled at state schools. As these children belong to illegal alien families, the costs to taxpayers also include a rise in spending on English Language Learners and Low-Income Student Supplements. Thus, White warned that the actual spending on caring for illegal aliens is likely much higher than the $100 million estimate.
