Last week, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement released its annual report, revealing the lengths to which the Biden administration has gone to care for illegal immigrants who have broken American laws and stolen into the country.
The operating budget of the ICE Health Service Corps in 2022 was approximately $324 million, an increase of $8 million over the previous year.
According to the annual ICE report, that money was spent on “direct care – including medical and dental health services – to over 118,000 noncitizens housed at 19 IHSC-operated facilities across the United States, which exceeded 1.1 million visits during the fiscal year.”
“The IHSC also oversaw compliance with healthcare-related detention standards for more than 120,500 non-citizens housed in 163 non-IHSC-staffed facilities,” according to the report.
Illegal immigrants were among these foreign nationals, with 2.37 million crossing the southern border last year and nearly 500,000 already encountered by the end of November this fiscal year.
One benefit of illegally entering the country and landing in ICE custody is “an initial medical screening, including for mental health needs, as well as all necessary follow-up care” paid for by taxpayers.
This care is provided by 1,640 U.S. Officers of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, civil servants, and contract health professionals at ICE facilities and elsewhere.
According to Gallup composite scores developed in collaboration with the nonprofit organization West Health, nearly 112 million (44%) of Americans are currently unable to pay for health care.
In a March 31, 2022, press release, West Health stated that, unlike illegal immigrants detained by ICE, more than a third of “cost desperate [American] adults report that they have cut back on utilities, and half have cut back on food in the past 12 months to pay for necessary healthcare.”
In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 31.6 million Americans, primarily those under the age of 65, had health insurance.
Uninsured children accounted for 3.7 million in the United States.
While an increasing number of foreign nationals enjoy services that tens of millions of Americans do not, U.S. taxpayers bear an increasing burden.
According to a study published in September by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, taxpayers must shoulder an additional $20.4 billion in annual costs to provide for the needs of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under Biden.
This annual figure was not included in the estimated $140 billion that taxpayers were already footing to compensate for the provision of services and benefits to the “longer-term” illegal immigrant population, according to FAIR.
Forbes reported in 2018 – years before Biden’s border crisis erupted – that Americans cross-subsidized illegal immigrants’ health care to the tune of $18.5 billion per year.
A new Los Angeles Times/YouGov poll conducted between December 9 and 14 revealed how unpopular the Biden administration’s immigration policies are.
According to the Center Square, 64% of respondents believe illegal immigration is a problem, while 42% believe they should be deported to their countries of origin.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who announced this week that he would sue the Biden administration over a rule that penalizes taxpayers in order to reduce the cost of illegal immigration, stated that the Biden administration “is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to care for themselves. Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other American.”
