There’s a “hidden” cost associated with allowing caravan immigrants into the country. Actually, it’s not so much hidden as it is unmentioned. The costs are easy to spot. All you have to do is look for them.
Before we get started, let’s see if we can agree on something: There is no such thing as “free”. Something might be “free of charge” but that doesn’t make it “free”. If someone gets something at no cost to them, someone, somewhere is paying for it. Just not them.
In most cases, the person paying for it is the government. Which, in case you didn’t realize, actually means that the people paying for it are the taxpayers. And that probably includes you.
Biden and the Democrats will soon allow 36,000 caravan immigrants into the country. While “profiling is wrong”, generalizations aren’t. So, we can safely make some generalizations about this group.
- They are coming here with little more than what they can carry.
- They likely DO NOT have jobs lined up.
- Most are likely to be unskilled.
- Most will not have any local support (family). If this group were coming from Mexico, I’d wouldn’t assume this. But they’re not, so I am.
- There is a mixture of adults and children.
- There is a mixture of families and individuals.
- They are a mixture of good people and bad people merely taking advantage of the situation.
- Some will be healthy, and some will have severe medical conditions.
Essentially, they’re coming here with no means to support themselves and no resources (money) to pay their own way. I think we can safely assume that the government (Federal, State or local) is going have to foot the bill. That’s obviously not true for all of them but it is very likely to be true about most of them.
Let’s make a few assumptions:
- 6,000 adults came on their own (not part of a family unit).
- 30,000 are part of a family.
- Each family has one kid (mom, dad, kid for 10,000 families total).
- 5,000 students will be school age.
These are just guesses, so don’t think of them as hard facts. But, they’re probably directionally correct and close enough for this exercise.
First of all, everyone has to eat. So, somehow 36,000 people need to be fed. If you consider the cost of the food and the labor associated with preparing and distribution, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume a cost of $5 per day per person. That’s probably a little low. Over the course of a year, that adds up to 66.7 million dollars. Just for food.
Now, let’s look at healthcare. Considering we have both families and individuals we’ll need to come up with a blended model. Let’s estimate $10 per day per person. That comes out to about $300 per month for an individual and $900 per month for a family of three. Remember, we’re talking about the cost, not the price. And, this also covers those who are already really sick when they get here. I’d say this is probably a low estimate too but let’s use it anyway. $10 per day for 36,000 people for a year is $131.4 million.
Next, let’s consider housing. Again, we’ll need a blended average here. Let’s assume that the cost per “unit” per month is $400. Since we have 6,000 individuals and 10,000 families, we’re talking about 16,000 units at $400 per month. Again, this is likely to be a very low estimate as I’m lumping in utilities, cable and Internet. Over 12 months, this comes to $76.8 million. Just for housing.
I know, I know, it’s a lot of math so I have to speed this up. But let’s talk about education first. California (which is in the middle of the pack) spends about $12,500 annually per student. That comes out to about $35 per day. I know that school isn’t in session 365 days a year but using a daily rate keeps the math simple and we end up with the same result anyway. $12,500 times 5,000 students comes to $63.875 million.
OK. Now I’ll speed things up.
For some reason, the government gives cell phones to everyone, so I’ve included them here. “Other Resources” includes things like police/fire/rescue, ICE Administration, social workers, etc. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume a $3 per day average cost.
A Quick FYI:
Using the ratio of police-to-population in Los Angeles, 36,000 more people would require the addition of 32 full-time officers and 10 full-time administration to the payroll. Even if these people don’t all end up in the same place, they’re still consuming similar resources, just spread out over a larger geographical area. And while the “good” people won’t have many interactions with the police, the “bad” ones will more than make up for that.
Add all of these things together and you see that the “hidden” (but really just unmentioned) cost of allowing 36,000 caravan immigrants into the United States is just shy of 400 million dollars for the first year. I personally think that many of these estimates are low. But, I also admit that I’ve made a lot of assumptions. If you think my estimates and assumptions are wildly off, go ahead and cut the total in half. $200,000,000 is still a pretty big number. Though, it could just as easily be twice what I estimated.
Presumably over time the immigrants would become self-sufficient and eventually pay taxes. But, at least for the first few years, we’d need to continue paying for most of their support. They’ll have more kids and the younger kids they already have will become old enough to attend school. By my estimate, the total amount we’d need to spend to support the 36,000 caravan immigrants until they can cover their own costs is between $400M and $1B.
Biden and the Democrats want to give 36,000 caravan immigrants the gift of entry into the United States. Unfortunately for the American taxpayer, it’s the gift that keeps on taking.
