Virginia’s immigrant population made up 11.1 percent of the state’s residents in 2011,
according to the American Immigration Council. Of that number, 2.7 percent, about 210,000 people, were unauthorized immigrants that cost the state billions of dollars over the years.
In 2010, illegal immigrants paid $183 million in state and local taxes in Virginia, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. That included $109.6 million in sales taxes, $58 million in state income taxes and $15.5 million in property taxes. The institute estimated that if the unauthorized immigrants were legally authorized to live and work in Virginia that amount would increase to $260 million in state and local taxes.
Urgent: Do You Support Immigration Reform?
However, in 2008, Virginia’s illegal immigrant population, estimated to be about one-third of the total immigrant population, cost state residents almost $1.7 billion per year in public services such as education, medical care and legal actions,
according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. This tax burden equaled about $625 per Virginia household headed by a native-born resident.
In 2012, nearly 30 percent of the population of Fairfax County was foreign-born
immigrants, the Fairfax Free Citizen reported. The Fairfax County public school system provides English as a second language services to more than 30,000 students who do not speak English fluently enough to attend regular classes. The cost of these services adds a burden of $3,300 per pupil annually.
Immigrants are a crucial part of Virginia’s workforce. They made up 14.6 percent of the state’s workers in 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of those, the Pew Research Center reported 3.9 percent were unauthorized aliens in 2010 and not eligible to work in the U.S. legally. If all illegal immigrants were removed from the Virginia workforce, the economic loss would be at least $11.2 billion and nearly 63,000 jobs, according to a Perryman Group report.
Twenty-five percent of unauthorized immigrant families use some type of welfare programs. In Virginia, 18 percent are enrolled in a food assistance program and 20 percent are enrolled in Medicaid,
according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Tell Us: Should Illegals Be Allowed to Apply for US Citizenship?
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.