A New Jersey lawmaker has estimated that taxpayers spend over $7 billion annually in his state on illegal aliens. Oh, to live free in America…

The old myth that used to be repeated to immigrants coming legally to America was that the streets here were paved with gold. Now, the implication in that old saying was that even very poor people could work their way up to material prosperity in America. But nowadays, it seems as if the myth is becoming reality for illegal aliens. In just one state, taxpayers are shelling out an estimated $7.3 billion annually for foreign lawbreakers, and, with the Biden border crisis, that heavy cost will likely only increase in the near future.

State assemblyman Paul Kanitra issued a report on May 7 about how much illegal aliens drain the resources of New Jersey. “After a two month research effort by my office team, we have discovered that the cost to New Jerseyans for the presence and care of illegal aliens here in New Jersey is at least $7.3 billion a year,” Kanitra’s report began.

Again, that’s just in one state, a state that’s far from the southern border. Not a single taxpayer penny should be expended on caring for migrants who have no legal basis for being here to begin with, but billions of dollars are being wasted on them while Americans struggle to make ends meet. Of course, Democrats totally control the government of New Jersey, so it’s not surprising that the state government puts illegal aliens ahead of citizens. We can only hope that New Jerseyans will remember that at the ballot box this November.

Related: Illegals Cause $560M+ Loss to Fla. Hospitals This Year

Kanitra’s report continued by noting that New Jersey has an estimated 892,000 illegal aliens. Breaking down the cost to each New Jerseyan to support these illegals, the report detailed:

That is nearly $1,600 for every one of our 4.8 million workers in our State per year.

From a household perspective, that is over $2,100 for every one of our 3.4 million households in New Jersey per year.

Kanitra added that the report’s estimates were “reasonably conservative,” and that the costs for illegals in New Jersey were specifically state and local, without including any of the money from the federal government. That means taxpayers actually pay more than $7.3 billion for New Jersey’s illegal aliens yearly, if federal expenditures were to be added to the total. It’s obscene.

Citing the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Kanitra’s report added that “previous assessments [do] show there are serious imbalances in taxes paid by illegal aliens versus what they receive back in various government services.” Many, many illegals take government handouts without ever paying back into the system. And that doesn’t even address the tens of thousands of crimes illegal migrants commit in America, a crisis that is only worsening.

Illegals not only drain state and federal resources, they actively harm American citizens. The more than $7 billion taxpayers spend on illegals in New Jersey yearly, shocking as it is, constitutes but a small part of the heavy and disastrous costs of illegal migration.