As Americans suffer through record-high inflation with rising costs for groceries, gasoline, and public utilities, sanctuary states are transferring millions in United States tax dollars to illegal aliens via unemployment benefits, a new investigation reveals.

The investigation, conducted by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), details how sanctuary states like New York and Colorado used the Chinese coronavirus pandemic to open unemployment benefits to illegal aliens — paid for by American citizens.

Specifically, the sanctuary jurisdictions of Washington, DC; New York, and Colorado have paid out $2.7 million in unemployment benefits to illegal aliens since the statewide accounts were opened.

“This is an insult to all those who are in the United States legally and abide by our laws,” IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox said in a statement.

IRLI investigators estimate that if Washington, DC; New York, and Colorado grew their unemployment programs even more and the sanctuary state of California implemented its program designed to provide illegal aliens with jobless benefits, the cost to American citizens would be upwards of $4.35 million every year.

“Unemployment benefits were meant to give assistance to U.S. citizens and legal residents facing temporary hardship,” Wilcox said. “Offering these benefits to foreign nationals is a powerful magnet to attract even more illegal border crossers.”

Already, illegal immigration costs Americans more than $143 billion annually. That figure has drastically increased by nearly $9.5 billion compared to prior estimates thanks to President Joe Biden’s expansive catch and release network that has resettled more than 1.35 million border crossers and illegal aliens across American communities from February 2021 to August 2022.

Americans are forced to absorb the cost of illegal immigration even as they endure record-setting inflation where gas prices have hit nearly $6.50 a gallon in some parts of the U.S. and crippling grocery prices are not expected to drop anytime soon.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.