Amnesty Cost to Taxpayers: $6.3 Trillion

Washington, D.C., May 6, 2013 -- Granting amnesty to an estimated 11 million unlawful immigrants will cost taxpayers at least $6.3 trillion, according to a new report by Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector. The highly anticipated report, released today, becomes available as a Senate committee is set to mark up a gcomprehensive immigration reformh bill May 9.

gNo matter how you slice it, amnesty will add a tremendous amount of pressure on Americafs already strained public purse,h said Rector, Heritagefs senior research fellow in domestic policy studies.

The vast majority of the fiscal costs examined are long-term - including costs associated with Obamacare, Social Security and other entitlements, plus more than 80 means-tested welfare programs. Among the major findings of Rector and co-author Jason Richwine:

• Over the course of their lives, former unlawful immigrants together would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay $3.1 trillion in taxes, for a lifetime gfiscal deficith- at minimum -- of $6.3 trillion (total benefits minus total taxes).



• The typical unlawful immigrant is 34 years old, has a 10^th-grade education, and already receives $14,387 per household in government benefits in excess of taxes paid. After the billfs ginterimh period of about 13 years, when former unlawful immigrants become eligible for welfare and Obamacare subsidies, that gfiscal deficith would double to $29,500 per household.



• After amnesty, the typical unlawful immigrant will receive government benefits for 50 years, meaning his household would receive $592,000 more in government benefits during his lifetime than he would pay in taxes. At retirement, he would draw more than $3 in Social Security and Medicare for every dollar he paid in FICA taxes.

Heritage President Jim DeMint joined Rector to outline the findings of the report at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. in The Heritage Foundationfs Lehrman Auditorium.Joining them was Derrick Morgan, Heritagefs vice president for domestic and economic policy.

Read the entire report (gThe Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayerh) here: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2013/05/The-Fiscal-Cost-of-Unlawful-Immigrants-and-Amnesty to-the-US-Taxpayer