Illegal Immigrants Cost U.S. Taxpayers $113 Billion Annually

On the heels of a new study that reveals illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers $113 billion a year, the Obama Administration has filed a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s measure to curb illegal immigration.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in federal court this week, claiming that the Arizona law, scheduled to take effect at the end of this month, is unconstitutional because it illegally intrudes on the federal government’s duties to enforce immigration laws.

“In our constitutional system, the federal government has pre-eminent authority to regulate immigration matters,” the lawsuit says. “This authority derives from the United States Constitution and numerous acts of Congress. The nation’s immigration laws reflect a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian interests.”

Arizona’s measure (SB 1070) bans “sanctuary city” policies and makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documentation. It also requires police officers to stop and question anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant. The influential open borders movement claims it’s a free ticket to racial profiling and some federal and state lawmakers assert is amounts to institutionalized discrimination and abuse that will lead to the arrest of seniors, kids and tourists.

President Obama tried pressuring Arizona Governor Jan Brewer into vetoing the “misguided” law and threatened to take legal action immediately after she signed it in April, even though the measure was adopted from the federal statute. The commander-in-chief quickly ordered the Justice Department to challenge its legality, assuring that it threatens civil rights and undermines basic notions of fairness and trust between police and their communities.

An army of Justice Department attorneys has been working on the legal challenge for months. Ironically, the government will file the lawsuit against the much-needed immigration control law on the same week that a nationally recognized group reveals the exorbitant toll that illegal aliens are having on the ailing economy. A new report published by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says that the annual cost of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local level is a staggering $113 billion.

State and local governments get stuck with a chunk of the tab—$84.2 billion—and the feds pick up the rest, according to the extensive national study that also breaks down figures by state. Not surprisingly, border states such as California, Arizona and Texas take the biggest hits and the single largest cost nationally is to educate the children of illegal aliens, $52 billion a year.

None of these astounding figures will likely be mentioned in the government’s lawsuit against Arizona’s new law, which was passed by the legislature in the absence of federal enforcement amid a dire crisis. The majority of Mexicans crossing illegally into Arizona are criminals, according to Governor Brewer, who points out that drug cartels have taken control and made most illegal border crossers “drug mules.”