States Must Pay Health and Education Benefits to Illegal Immigrant Families
The example of Florida
By Jason Richwine on January 11, 2022
When the federal government neglects to control the border, the resulting illegal immigration imposes an “unfunded mandate” on the states. The states must spend money on a problem created by the federal government without receiving federal reimbursement. Some of the state expenditures are for population-based services — roads, bridges, police, courts, etc. — which naturally increase in cost as the population increases. But the costs of illegal immigration are not limited to infrastructure. States also must provide social services to illegal immigrants, primarily on behalf of their children.
Consider the example of Florida. The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has been especially vocal about the costs that illegal immigration has imposed on his state, and he is right to be concerned. Based on an analysis of the American Community Survey, there were nearly 800,000 illegal immigrants in Florida in 2019. Table 1 shows the cost of associated government services. For example, among non-disabled children (both U.S.- and foreign-born) living in households headed by an illegal immigrant, about 129,000 were on Medicaid. With a per-person cost of $957, this Medicaid coverage cost the state a total of $123 million. Florida also spent a combined $52 million on illegal immigrants who gave birth either on Medicaid or (much more commonly) without insurance, which usually generates Medicaid spending.
https://cis.org/Richwine/States-Must-Pay-Health-and-Education-Benefits-Illegal-Immigrant-Families
