The current illegal immigrant population accounts for up to $1.9 trillion in projected lifetime costs, CEA estimates.
By Catholics for Catholics
The Democratic plan to make the country affordable comes with a steep price tag, according to the Trump Administration.
How steep? Well, President Donald Trump touts 16 consecutive months without illegal immigrant releases at the southern border, a Council of Economic Advisers report calculates that mass amnesty and expanded federal benefits under Democratic Socialists of America-backed immigration policies could cost taxpayers between $440 billion and $613 billion over the next decade.
According to a story by Fox News, socialist-aligned candidates have gained in popularity in 2026, winning key Democratic primaries and expanding their influence within the party.
“President Trump … supercharged ICE to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members and terrorists,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital.
“Meanwhile, radical Democrats want to go back to their extreme open border policies and grant amnesty to the illegal aliens they released into our communities. Not only will these radical policies make America less safe, but they will cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars.”
.@TaylorRogers47 on the cost of Democrats’ socialist agenda: "These are policies that a new economic study finds will cost each American household nearly $400,000 over the next ten years." https://t.co/kSX9XefXek
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 15, 2026
But the midterms are around the corner and Democrats have been campaigning heavily on affordability. The White House is countering their offensive by casting the DSA’s immigration agenda as a potential financial and public safety threat — cautioning that its policies could compound the very cost-of-living pressures Democrats have used to hammer Republicans.
The council calculates that the typical illegal immigrant comes with a lifetime net fiscal cost of $166,716; with the actual illegal immigrant population estimated to account for between $1.4 trillion and $1.9 trillion in taxpayer costs under its model — figures the administration is highlighting as the “true costs of extreme open borders [and] mass-amnesty socialist policies.”
The CEA’s estimated $166,716 lifetime taxpayer cost per illegal immigrant exceeds the roughly $124,000 it would cost to put a student through four years at an average in-state public university, including tuition, housing, food and other expenses, according to College Board’s 2025–26 figures — putting the figure in perspective as American families also grapple with college affordability.
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