(NewsNation) — American taxpayers shelled out more than $150 billion on immigrants in the U.S. illegally in 2023 alone, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) estimates.
DOGE, which is expected to become a federal agency in Donald Trump’s upcoming administration, said in a social media posting the spending compares to projects such as building the Hoover Dam, funding World War I and constructing the atomic bomb and accounted for 2% of the overall U.S. budget.
Newsweek reported that if accurate, the $150.7 billion spent on illegal immigration would rival the $151 billion that the government spent in 2023 to provide income security programs to military veterans and their families in 2023.
Meanwhile, sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago, and Denver have also paid millions and sometimes even billions on new arrivals since 2022.
Data shows that New York City, which has provided shelter, food, and other services for 223,000 migrants since 2022, has paid $ 5.22 billion for the care of new arrivals. Chicago, which has reported 51,643 new arrivals that have been bused there from the southern border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, has spent $574.5 million.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said that the city would not “cower in fear” to Washington and has remained committed to protecting migrants. However, Johnson recently announced that the city will be ending its New Arrivals Mission at the end of the year.
The city will begin a One System Initiative in January, in which Chicago’s existing shelter system for those experiencing homelessness will be combined with shelters that have been designated for new arrivals. The city is facing a budget shortfall of $1 billion, according to city data.
Residents have criticized the first-term mayor, including some who expressed anger with Johnson at a recent City Council meeting. One woman said the city could begin addressing its financial woes by stopping providing “illegals with everything.”
Denver officials report that the Mile High City, which has cared for 42,911 new arrivals since 2022, has paid out $356 million to provide services for immigrants bused there from Texas.
Yet as President-elect Donald Trump and his border czar Tom Homan call for mass deportations and have threatened to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal enforcement efforts, mayors in those cities are refusing to back down.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said this week that he is open to deporting immigrants with criminal backgrounds, which Homan has said will be the primary focus of mass deportation efforts. The city’s comptroller said that New York spent $1.47 billion on asylum-seeker shelter and services in the fiscal year that ended in June 2023. Of those funds, only $438 million were reimbursed by the state.
The New York Post reported that in fiscal year 2024, New York committed $3.07 billion to immigrant care and that the state would be reimbursing $1.3 billion.
Despite the spending, however, Adams said that he won’t allow Homan to come in and do what he pleases. Adams said he is open to sitting down with Homan in the coming weeks to discuss the administration’s plans for dealing with immigrants who “are harming our citizens.”
But unlike other progressives who are afraid to speak out against illegal immigration out of fear of so-called “cancel culture,” Adams distanced himself from that group.
“Well, cancel me because I’m going to protect the people of the city,” Adams told reporters this week. “And if you come into this country, in this city, and think you’re going to harm innocent New Yorkers and innocent migrants and asylum-seekers, this is not the mayor you want to be in the city under. “
