Utah Sen. Mike Lee is cosponsoring a bill to double fines for immigrants who enter — or try to enter — the country illegally and employers who hire them.
“Americans are footing the bill for illegal immigrants who use public services, benefits, and schools intended for citizens,” he said in a press release.
The Republican senator was not available for an interview. Still, Lee’s office cited a 2023 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigration nonprofit that wants to slash legal immigration and stop illegal immigration. FAIR found that illegal immigration costs the United States $150 billion.
Their report doesn’t specify a time period for that cost, but it says most data came from fiscal years 2020 to 2022. The report also takes a broad view, placing the costs of enforcement on immigrants without legal status, including the entire budget of the Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the costs of deportation proceedings.
Unlike other analyses, it also counts public benefits used by U.S.-born citizen children whose parents lack legal status, since those children would not be in the country if it weren’t for their parents. Mirroring that approach in its analysis of welfare use, the Center for Immigration Studies, FAIR’s sister organization, includes benefits used by U.S.-born citizen children of unauthorized immigrants as well.
What does other research say?
A 30-year study from the libertarian Cato Institute found that immigrants without legal status “likely reduced the deficit by at least $1.7 trillion.” David Bier, director of immigration studies at the think tank, said Lee’s assertion is incorrect.
“Particularly illegal immigrants receive far fewer benefits and are much less likely to be in public schools than the U.S.-born population, and so they are paying taxes, and they are covering those costs,” he said.
In 2024 testimony to Congress, Bier said FAIR’s study underestimates immigrants’ tax contributions and ignores how citizen children grow up to pay taxes.
Part of the reason unauthorized immigrants benefit the country financially, according to the Cato paper, is that many without legal status pay taxes but don’t file returns to claim refunds.
What do we know about Utah’s undocumented population?
Utah is home to about 138,000 unauthorized immigrants as of 2023, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. That’s about 4% of the state’s population. More than half live in Salt Lake County.
Estimates for unauthorized immigrants’ financial contributions in Utah vary. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy says they paid $235 million in state and local taxes in 2022, and in 2023, the pro-immigrant American Immigration Council put that number at $322.5 million. Nine out of 10 unauthorized immigrants in Utah are of working age, and they often find jobs in construction, arts and hospitality and manufacturing. Nine percent are entrepreneurs.
It’s much more common for children of undocumented immigrants to be citizens than to lack legal status. Utah has about 7,000 unauthorized immigrants under 16, compared to 42,100 citizen children living with a parent who doesn’t have legal status.
What public benefits are people without legal status eligible for?
The biggest one, Bier said, is public school.
The U.S. Supreme Court established in 1982 that students have the right to a K-12 education, regardless of legal status. Schools don’t track that, so there’s no way to know how many kids in Utah schools lack legal status, but the Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are 8,000 unauthorized immigrant children (ages 5-18) in Utah enrolled in school.
Bier said immigrants present illegally don’t use the public school system as much as citizens because they tend to arrive in the United States as adults.
“You're already out of school, out of college, you're in the labor force, you're looking for a job, and so you're basically getting a worker without having to pay for them,” he said.
Other programs available in Utah, regardless of legal status, include free school lunch, the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, and in-state tuition for public colleges and universities.
Utah is also one of 15 states with a low-cost health insurance program for kids regardless of legal status. The program, called State CHIP, cost Utah about $4 million in fiscal year 2025. Families must meet income and work requirements.
State Sen. Luz Escamilla ran the bill to start the program, and she said it makes financial sense to pay for health insurance so kids get care before they need emergency treatment. It also means medical providers are paid for their work.
“Why would you penalize a child when they have absolutely no control? And it's always better to have preventive care on any individual, let alone children. It's way more cost-effective,” she said.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
