Illinois taxpayers on the hook as state is projected to spend $2.5 billion on migrants

A new report detailed the impact $2.5 billion spent on “migrants” in one blue state could have had on the downtrodden already living there.

While leftists took to the streets to light cars on fire and hurl rocks and other objects at police under the banner of “protest” against federal law enforcement, the consequences of open borders continued to generate considerable tabs for taxpayers in supporting freeloading foreign nationals.

That included in the Land of Lincoln where a new report from the Illinois Public Policy Institute had concluded the state was on track to spend $2.5 billion on “migrant care” alone before the end of 2025, with the overage being enough to cover the costs to shelter the state’s homeless for an entire year.

Decrying Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) administration for “massive cost overruns and a troubling lack of transparency,” the report singled out last Monday that, based on an audit from the state’s auditor general, the health benefits alone for noncitizens had amounted to $1.6 billion by July 2024 for adults 42- to 64-years-old as well as for seniors.

“Originally, it was estimated that the senior program would cost $224 million. Auditors found actual expenditures were 84% higher than expected at $412.3 million,” detailed the IPPI. “In 2023 alone, total costs outpaced expected spending by over $400 million, enough money to shelter Illinois’ entire homeless population for a year.”

The other adult program had been expected to cost $126.4 million over three years and instead had wound up costing $485.3 million. According to the report, the overspending in the year 2023 alone, at more than $400 million, had been enough to cover the costs to shelter all of Illinois’ homeless.

At the same time, $440 million of an expected $629 million for alien health care in 2025 was getting provided via the state general funds and that did not account for the $478 million in benefits since 2023 that had been allocated via the Welcoming with Dignity initiative that funded “migrant welcome centers, housing, emergency food, resettlement services and rental assistance.”

Days after the report, Pritzker had sat alongside fellow Democratic Party Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to respond to questions about the sanctuary state status.

“I have seen firsthand how states have had to shoulder the consequences of a broken immigration system. I’m proud of how we’ve responded … safe and compassionate immigration policies I believe are vital,” the Illinois executive told the legislators during his opening statement. “Illinois chose a different path. Faced with a humanitarian crisis, our state made sure children and families did not go hungry or freeze to death.”

Meanwhile, Hochul and Pritzker had echoed the sentiments of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), urging border czar Tom Homan to come arrest them if he was so sure that they were guilty of allegedly committing obstruction of federal law enforcement.

“Look, let me begin by saying I have the highest duty to protect the people of my state and indeed, if Tom Homan came to try to arrest me, I can say first of all that he can try. I can also tell you that I will stand in the way of Tom Homan going after people who don’t deserve to be frightened in their communities, who don’t deserve to be threatened, terrorized,” said Pritzker. “I’d rather that he came and arrested me than do that to the people of my state.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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