What does the refugee resettlement program cost US taxpayers?
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A minimum of $1 billion but closer to $10 billion annually?
That is a question we get all the time! But, honestly no one knows for sure because although the Office of Refugee Resettlement does a survey of a small number of refugees every year (for its always-late annual report to Congress) to see what services refugees access, they have really no idea.
Yesterday a reader (thanks Linda) sent me the Report to Congress for FY2015 that accompanies the Presidential Determination for how many refugees we are bringing in the new fiscal year. FY2015 began on October 1st. I hadn’t seen this year’s report, but it is a treasure trove of information which we will be bringing to your attention as time goes on.
This report is not to be confused with Annual Reports to Congress which look back at previous years.
Here is the FY2015 Report to Congress. Note that the dollar figures we have here do not include: costs associated with the Unaccompanied Alien Children’s Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income programs, the Victims of Domestic Trafficking, food stamps, public housing, WIC, education for the children, costs associated with the criminal justice system, interpreters, etc.
Remember Eskinder Negash told us here that the Office of Refugee Resettlement took care of 143,000 ‘refugees’ in FY 2013 (but some were UACs and victims of trafficking).
So, without those costs added in we are paying over $1 billion a year in tax dollars to resettle just over 100,000 refugees and asylees in one year. Some experts say the cost for the “services” listed above for years (because we don’t just give welfare for the first year in America) would run the tab up to the $5-$10 billion mark each year. ...
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