The cost of the migrant crisis on states will balloon in the coming months and years, meaning Congress may have to step in with additional funding for a problem they and the president so far refuse to fix. States and cities have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into keeping migrants in shelters, fed, and given medical treatment, and the costs aren’t going away anytime soon.
Since the beginning of the Biden administration, nearly 10 million migrants have crossed the southern border into America after being either paroled or escaping border guards altogether. Red states like Texas and Florida began shipping some of those migrants to blue cities and states up north that typically don’t have to deal with such problems.
New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Denver are among the localities hardest hit by this travel program instituted by Governor Abbott in Texas and Governor DeSantis in Florida.
On Wednesday, the governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, announced her state will have to spend nearly half a billion dollars on programs for migrants in the next year. Leaders in the state legislature announced they would give her $251 million for the rest of the fiscal year — which ends on the last day of June — as well as an additional supplemental $175 million for the beginning of the next fiscal year.
In fiscal year 2024 alone, the Bay State has spent $427 million for shelter, food, and healthcare programs for the migrants as part of Ms. Healey’s emergency shelter program. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is already helping with some of the costs. This month, it released nearly $200 million in funds for the migrants.
According to the state’s estimates, the total cost of the Biden-era migrant crisis will be more than $1 billion by 2027.
The political problem for President Biden is apparent, given the polling on the issue. In December, one poll found that 28 percent of Americans approved of how the president was handling the border and immigration issues, compared to 68 percent who disapproved.
A poll released from Axios Thursday shows American voters are more in tune with President Trump’s immigration policies than the current president’s. In total, 51 percent of Americans say the government should institute mass deportation policies, including 56 percent of white voters, 45 percent of Hispanic voters, and 40 percent of Black voters. Even 42 percent of Democrats say they are on board with such an operation.
The total price tag of the migrant crisis will be determined by how much states themselves spend on housing, education, expanded welfare benefits, and health care in the coming years. “Every day, millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on costs directly associated with illegal immigration and the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border sparked by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ policies,” a recent report from the Homeland Security Committee said.
“Only a small fraction is ever recouped from the taxes paid by illegal aliens, with the rest falling on the shoulders of American citizens and lawful residents,” the report noted.
Many big cities like Boston are being forced to deal with the crisis mostly on their own. The Denver mayor, Mike Johnston, recently announced he would shell out nearly $90 million for migrant programs after cutting city services like the motor vehicles and the police departments. New York State and New York City have similarly poured more money on the problem.
Chicago has become especially fraught in recent months after the mayor, Brandon Johnson, began pouring money into assistance programs. He has faced backlash — especially from the Black community — after he spent more than $300 million on food, housing, and healthcare for those in the city illegally.
On April 19, Mr. Johnson got his city council to approve another $70 million for the migrants.
Two Black Chicagoans — a husband and wife who co-own a bakery in the city — told the Voice of America that they were shocked to learn that the city could so quickly allocate money for housing, food, and healthcare for these migrants after the Black community has been struggling for years.
“I definitely don’t want to seem insensitive to them and them wanting a better life,” Charlotte Jackson, who lives at the South Loop neighborhood, said. “However, if you can all of a sudden come up with all these millions of dollars to address their housing, why didn’t you address the homeless issue here?”
Her husband, Chris Jackson, echoed those sentiments: “For so long we accepted that this is how things had to be in our communities. This migrant crisis has made many people go, ‘Wait a minute, no it doesn’t.’”
“I can’t believe we spent the first year and half of a new administration advocating and spending billions on migrants and a Bears stadium. I’m just in awe of the incompetency,” Ja’Mal Green, who ran against Mr. Johnson for mayor in 2023, said on X.
What Congress chooses to do to help the states deal with the problem will be known in just a few weeks, when the annual budget fight kicks off once again. Mr. Biden — who is facing pressure from his fellow Democrats to provide more support for blue states — did not include any increases to migrant housing, health care, or education in his budget plan.
