Cost of Illegal Immigration in South Dakota

South Dakota taxpayers have borne a cost estimated at about $33.3 million annually due to illegal immigration, leaving South Dakota near the bottom among U.S. states in costs associated with illegal immigration.

Slate reported the Pew Hispanic Center estimated illegal immigrants in 2010 made up about 10,000 of the Mount Rushmore State’s population.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform provided an even lower figure, indicating that South Dakota as of 2010 was the home of an estimated 5,000 unlawful immigrants.

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FAIR estimated annual fiscal costs borne by South Dakota’s taxpayers due to illegal immigration at $33,306,846.

That figure placed South Dakota the 47th-highest such total among U.S. states, above only North Dakota (48th), Montana (49th) and West Virginia (50th).

Government entities provide four types of benefits relevant to determining fiscal costs of immigration, according to The Heritage Foundation:

Public education, which is largely free or heavily subsidized for parents with low incomes
Welfare programs, which provide food, housing, cash, medical and other services to about 100 million low-income U.S. residents
Direct benefits such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, Medicare, and Social Security
Population-based services such as parks, highways, and police and fire protection, which must be expanded when a community’s population increases

The average U.S. household in 2010 received $31,584 in government benefits and services in these four categories, according to The Heritage Foundation.

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To illustrate how costly illegal immigration proved, it claimed U.S. households headed by a person with a college education on average in 2010 received $24,839 in government benefits and paid $54,089 in taxes — amounting to a fiscal surplus of $29,250.

At the same time, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services and paid $10,334 in taxes, bringing a fiscal deficit of $14,387.

FAIR claimed South Dakota’s annual illegal immigration expenses include: