American taxpayers across a number of towns and cities are being charged to the tune of more than $66 million, often passed through a group linked to billionaire George Soros, to help illegal aliens fight their deportations from the United States.

The investigation conducted by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) reveals the extent to which taxpayers across about 50 towns, cities, and counties are footing the bill to keep illegal aliens in their communities.

Specifically, the Vera Institute of Justice has hugely expanded its contracts with cities and counties that work to defend illegal aliens fighting deportation using taxpayer funds.

The investigation details:

Vera uses a simple, straightforward strategy. It targets liberal cities and counties, lobbying them to establish funds to pay for lawyers to represent foreigners in deportation proceedings. Interested localities are encouraged by Vera to join its SAFE (Safety and Fairness for Everyone) Network. This is an association of city and county governments across the country that spend public funds on lawyers to represent non-citizens contesting their deportation orders. [Emphasis added]

Vera entices local governments by offering matching grants to a portion of the costs associated with the first year of a deportation defense fund. For example, a city may decide to join the SAFE Network and accept a $100,000 donation from Vera, but city officials must fork over $100,000 of taxpayer money in order to receive that grant. Accordingly, for the initial year, the participating city will effectively double the funds available to it. (In our hypothetical, $100,000 becomes $200,000 through Vera’s matching grant). [Emphasis added]

The Vera Institute of Justice not only has ties to Soros’s Open Society Foundation but also major corporate backers like the Tides Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

According to IRLI investigators, “cash-strapped American families are laying out roughly $66,145,000 for lawyers to try and keep illegal aliens, foreign criminals, and other immigration violators” through such contracts like those sought after by the Vera Institute of Justice. The investigation states:

 

… facing staggering budgetary shortfalls, states, cities and towns across America have increasingly reduced expenditures on essential services such as police protection and public transportation. Nevertheless, the number of jurisdictions establishing deportation defense funds continues to grow. And the cost to U.S. taxpayers is staggering.

What’s worse, is the longer those immigration violators remain in America, the more they tend to cost us – placing a fiscal burden on public schools, the criminal justice system, and our transportation infrastructure. [Emphasis added]

…

So, what’s the end game? Advocates for illegal aliens and other immigration lawbreakers know that even when lawyers can’t win a case in Immigration Court, they can often delay the proceedings. And the longer a foreign national tends to remain in the United States, the lower the likelihood that he/she will ultimately be removed from the United States. The fact is that our system rewards people for breaking our immigration laws – and the longer they get away with breaking the law, the greater the reward. [Emphasis added]

For years, the federal government has contracted with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to funnel taxpayer money to illegal aliens fighting deportation from the U.S. In 2018, for instance, the Obama administration rewarded the Vera Institute of Justice with a $310 million contract to help young migrants avoid deportation.

Last year, alone, the Biden administration gave the Vera Institute of Justice and its affiliate group more than $200 million in federal contracts to fund legal representation for illegal aliens facing deportation.

The initiative has also been carried out by a number of district attorneys whose local campaigns were backed by Soros, as Breitbart News has reported.

“These efforts are totally insane,” the investigation states. “Just imagine just how much it would cost Americans if they had to pay for a free lawyer for every one of the 15-20 million foreigners who are currently estimated to be in the U.S. in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

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