Illegal immigration costs American taxpayers and hospitals billions of dollars in medical costs every year, the Federation for American Immigration Reform pointed out.
Last year, when over 98,000 illegal aliens were encountered in the Yuma, Arizona, border sector, the local hospital found itself providing $26 million in uncompensated care to illegal migrants.
CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center Robert Trenschel pointed out at a Congressional hearing that many migrants come to America with “significant disease,” and often require major medical treatments, ranging from dialysis to heart surgery.
This strain put on the American healthcare system is by no means limited to Arizona, however. Texans paid up to a whopping $717 million on healthcare costs for illegal immigrants, which was administered by public hospitals, in 2021 alone.
One 2018 study found that Americans were spending as much as $18.5 billion a year on health care for illegal migrants.
Meanwhile, some migrants come to America specifically to access healthcare. Monsi Contreras’s family, for example, came to America illegally so that her mother could access “more advanced treatments” in America after suffering a stroke. In Mexico, her father was a banker and her mother was a journalist.
In another instance, a family crossed the Rio Grande at night with one woman who was confined to a wheelchair.
The $18.5 billion annual cost is likely significantly higher now, five years later. FAIR points out that “These must now be considered low-ball figures, given the soaring costs of health care and sharp increases in illegal immigration under the Biden administration.”
In fact, a report from FAIR found that roughly 1.3 million illegal immigrants were released into America in just the first year of President Biden’s administration. The figure is larger than the population of San Jose, California, which had the tenth largest population of any American city in 2022.
But in addition to those who were released into the United States, there were also roughly one million “gotaways,” which leads FAIR to estimate that “Approximately 2.3 million illegal aliens successfully entered the country.” This adjusted figure is larger than the populations of Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, and San Jose, the fifth through tenth most populated cities in America.
“Taxpayers may expect migrant healthcare costs to keep climbing along with the unabated surge in border crossings,” the organization also notes.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at [email protected]
