Cost of Illegal Immigration in South Carolina

South Carolina taxpayers reportedly bore a cost estimated at more than $390 million annually due to illegal immigration. This cost burden placed South Carolina in the lower half of the nation’s 50 states for expenses related to illegal immigration.

Slate reported the Pew Hispanic Center estimated illegal immigrants in 2010 made up about 55,000 — or 1.2 percent — of South Carolina's population.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform put that figure a bit higher and estimated South Carolina was home to 70,000 unlawful immigrants in 2010.

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FAIR estimated annual fiscal costs borne by South Carolina taxpayers due to illegal immigration at $390,639,510, which placed South Carolina's illegal immigration costs as the 29th-highest such total among U.S. states.

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

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

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 reported South Carolina’s annual illegal immigration expenses include: