The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) obtained government ICE records that show that the agency has spent over $100 million in the last few years in transporting illegal alien children who have crossed the border since the 2014 border surge began. According to the IRLI’s calculations ICE spent on average $665 per minor in 2014, mostly on transportation costs to fly the children between government agencies, to relatives in the U.S. or back to their home countries if deported.
In October alone 6,754 unaccompanied children and 13,123 parents with children were apprehended at the border, one of the worst months on record. Transportation for these children will cost taxpayers around $4.5 million.
Children who are in ICE’s custody are housed in hotels versus detention centers, which accounts for more than 25% of the agency’s cost. Another 58% is spent on airplane transportation.
After being processed children are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which then sends the children to relatives or sponsors in the U.S, all paid for by the American taxpayers.
According to a recent Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report HHS currently has 11,200 children in their direct care as of Nov. 27. The agency is paying the most it has ever paid for shelters since it’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was started.
In order to pay for the increase of care for illegal alien children HHS had to cut $167 million from other programs including HIV/AIDS and drug abuse prevention, cancer research, and contagious disease prevention.
Read more on this story at The Washington Times.
