DOGE highlights how much illegal immigration costs US taxpayers
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The incoming Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking aim at the burden illegal immigration places on U.S. taxpayers.
The government cost-cutting initiative, co-led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, took to X on Monday to highlight the price tag of illegal immigration compared to the cost of World War I and an array of major American projects, adjusting for inflation.
Illegal immigration: $150.7 billion
Migrants waiting to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol walk on a road near Jacumba Hot Springs after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on June 13. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In the post, DOGE said illegal immigration cost U.S. taxpayers $150.7 billion in 2023 alone.
The agency cited figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which arrived at the number by adding the total federal, state and local expenditures on illegal immigration and subtracting the total tax contributions made by illegal immigrants.
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World War I: $334 billion
U.S. soldiers of the 23rd Infantry, 2nd Division, fire a 37mm machine gun at a German position in the Argonne Forest in France during the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
DOGE pointed to a Norwich University study on the cost of U.S. wars in today's dollars, which indicates America spent $334 billion on World War I when adjusting for inflation. That means American taxpayers spent nearly half the cost of that war in a single year on illegal immigration in 2023.
Apollo Space Program: $257 billion
The Apollo 8 space vehicle is seen on way its from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Pad A, Launch Complex 39. (HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
According to The Planetary Society, cited by DOGE, NASA's Project Apollo — the space program that put the first American astronauts on the moon — cost the U.S. $25.8 billion from 1960 to 1973. In today's dollars, that is $257 billion.
Manhattan Project: $30 billion
Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves (center) examine the twisted wreckage that is all that remains of a hundred-foot tower, winch and shack that held the first nuclear weapon. On the far right is Victor Weisskopf of the Manhattan Project's T (Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb and helped America win World War II, cost U.S. taxpayers $30 billion over four years, in 2023 dollars. DOGE pointed to a study citing the National Park Service as the source for the dollar amount.
Panama Canal: $15.2 billion
The Panama Canal is seen in the area of Pedro Miguel locks in Panama City on Dec. 13, 2022. (Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The U.S. government spent $500 million excavating the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914. That amounts to $15.2 billion in 2023 dollars, according to a history of the project cited by DOGE.
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Hoover Dam: $1 billion
The Hoover Dam water intake towers at Lake Mead, the country's largest man-made water reservoir. (George Rose/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The federal government spent $49 million to build the Hoover Dam, which was finished in 1935 after five years of construction. When accounting for inflation, that puts the cost at $1 billion, according to the National Archives.