Illegal immigration under President Joe Biden in 2022 is costing American taxpayers more than former President Donald Trump's proposed border wall, according to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The 1.3 million illegal migrants released into the country under the Biden administration will cost taxpayers $20.4 billion this year, with each migrant costing $9,232 per year, according to the report.
The Trump administration appropriated $15 billion for the construction of a border wall.
But on Biden's first day in office, he terminated the funding allocated for the border wall, pausing its construction.
Biden recently directed the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense secretaries to come up with plans to fund the border wall amid a record surge in illegal immigration but appears not to have followed through with many recent construction plans.
Between October 2021 and July 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered over 1.9 million migrants at the southern border.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said in July 2021 that the Biden administration had been spending around $3 million a day to pay DOD contractors not to finish construction on the southern border wall since January 2021.
The Biden administration said in December that it would begin filling gaps in the border wall in Yuma, Arizona.
The gaps remained in August, leading Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to place shipping containers in them.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also utilized shipping containers in place of the border wall.
"Even in an age in which trillion dollar spending packages are considered modest, the additional $20.4 billion the Biden Border Crisis has heaped onto the backs of American taxpayers is still staggering," FAIR President Dan Stein said in a statement Tuesday.
"$20.4 billion could address some very important needs of the American public, instead of covering the costs of the surge of illegal migration triggered by this administration's policies."
The Biden administration recently amended the "Public Charge Rule" to allow illegal migrants to receive certain public benefits without risk of deportation.
The rule is applied to noncitizens who are seen as "likely at any time to become a public charge," according to DHS.
"We are excited and welcome to see the new rule from the Biden administration updating the barbaric weaponizing of public charge used by the former administration. This allows our borders to remain open to a large portion of the world where immigrants struggle and seek the American dream," American Immigration Lawyers Association Immediate Past President Allen Orr recently told the Daily Caller News Foundation of the rule change.
DHS did not immediately respond to the DCNF's request for comment.
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