WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Republican lawmakers have long argued migrants coming across the border in record numbers in recent years are costing Americans — and now they say they have the number to prove it.
‘The Cost of the Border Crisis’
This week, the House Budget Committee hosted a hearing on “The Cost of the Border Crisis” to discuss how much President Joe Biden’s border policy allegedly costs taxpayers.
GOP committee members said that under Biden, taxpayers have shelled out $150 billion per year on border expenses, which equates to almost $9,000 per migrant annually.
The budget committee presented findings from the Federation for American Immigration Reform — an organization that aims to reduce legal immigration by as much as 70%.
The group said it calculated these numbers factoring in what it describes as a “negative economic impact,” including billions of dollars for education and medical spending for migrants.
Migrant spending power
A study conducted in 2021 by the New American Economy Organization, a self-described bipartisan immigration research group, explored the spending power that undocumented immigrants controlled.
“Mexican undocumented immigrants held more than $82.2 billion in spending power, money that often goes back into local economies as they spend on housing, consumer goods, and services,” the New American Economy Organization wrote in its findings.
During the hearing this week, both sides said much more must be done to address the ongoing crisis at the border.
“This is the real and significant — and at the state and local level especially — unsustainable cost of the current border crisis,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said.
“It is time to stop playing politics with this very important issue. Let’s actually finally get back to a bipartisan solution to fix this American challenge,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., said.
New asylum changes on the horizon
This all comes as the Biden administration is reportedly gearing up to propose new asylum changes for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The changes could allow the U.S. to speed up the removal of migrants which officials see as a potential national security or public safety risk.
However, any sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration policy would likely be met with pushback from Democrats.
Over the past seven months, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows the southern border has seen 1.54 million encounters, which remains on par with last year’s record-setting numbers.