Criminal Foreigners in Prison Cost American Taxpayers $1.4B Every Year

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File Photo: ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images

The criminal illegal and legal immigrant population in prison is costing American taxpayers about $1.42 billion every year.

The newest Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals the extent to which taxpayers are subsidizing the cost of incarcerating, feeding, and housing criminal illegal and legal immigrants.

Between 2011 and 2016, the average annual cost of to incarcerate criminal illegal and legal immigrants slightly decreased — as the criminal alien population slightly decreased as well — from $1.56 billion to about $1.42 billion. That cost is paid for by American taxpayers who are forced to offset the costs of mass immigration to the country.

The amount of tax dollars spent to incarcerate criminal foreign nationals in the U.S. exceeds the amount of money that American taxpayers spend on welfare for foreign refugees who are permanently resettled across the country.

As Breitbart News most recently noted, welfare for foreign refugees costs taxpayers about $870 million every year. That cost is expected to dramatically decrease as President Trump’s administration has slowed the flow of refugees to the U.S. in the last year.

The majority of Americans, about 51 percent, say illegal immigration increases crime in the country, and nearly half of Americans, 48 percent, say illegal immigration crushes wages for America’s working and middle class.

Every year, the U.S. admits more than 1.5 foreign nationals, with the vast majority deriving from family-based chain migration. In 2016, the legal and illegal immigrant population reached a record high of 44 million. By 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the legal and illegal immigrant population of the U.S. will make up nearly 15 percent of the entire U.S. population.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder

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