By Robert Rector and Jamie Bryan Hall | Heritage Foundation
- Based on a recent study by the National Academy of Sciences, it is possible to project the fiscal costs of granting amnesty or earned citizenship to illegal immigrants.
- Granting amnesty would allow today’s illegal immigrants to gain access to an array of benefit programs (Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and over 90 federal means-tested welfare programs), the value of which would exceed any taxes or fines they would pay.
- The net fiscal cost to taxpayers (in terms of net present value) would be roughly $1.29 trillion, which factors out to $15,300 per U.S. household currently paying federal income tax.
- The fiscal impact varies according to education level: Lower levels of education track with greater use of benefits and hence a greater cost to the tax-payer.
- A second amnesty (the first having taken place in 1986) could also signal a precedent that would encourage new waves of illegal immigration encouraged by the prospect of serial amnesties.