U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued its annual report last week, revealing the lengths to which the Biden administration has gone to take care of illegal immigrants who flouted American laws and stole into the nation.
The ICE Health Service Corps' operating budget in 2022 was roughly $324 million, representing an increase of $8 million over the previous year.
According to the annual ICE report, that money was spent on providing "direct care – including medical and dental health services – to over 118,000 non-citizens housed at 19 IHSC-operated facilities throughout the United States, which exceeded 1.1 million visits over the course of the fiscal year."
The IHSC "also oversaw compliance with healthcare-related detention standards for more than 120,500 non-citizens housed in 163 non-IHSC-staffed facilities."
Among these foreign nationals were illegal immigrants, 2.37 million of whom poured over the southern border last year, and nearly 500,000 of whom had already been encountered by the end of November this fiscal year.
One perk of breaking into the country and landing in ICE custody is "an initial medical screening, including for mental health needs, as well as all necessary follow-up care" at taxpayers' expense.
Individuals flagged as "public safety" or flight risks are also rendered these services.
This care is administered by 1,640 U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers, civil servants, and contract health professionals at ICE-owned facilities and elsewhere.
According to composite scores recently developed by Gallup along with the nonprofit organization West Health, nearly 112 million (44%) of Americans are presently struggling to pay for health care.
West Health noted in a March 31, 2022, press release that unlike the illegal immigrants in ICE detention facilities, over a third of "cost desperate [American] adults report that they have cut back on utilities, and half have cut back on food in the past 12 months to pay for necessary healthcare."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted in 2020 that 31.6 million Americans had health insurance, largely those under the age of 65.
3.7 million American children were found to have been uninsured.
While more and more foreign nationals enjoy services that tens of millions of Americans don't have, U.S. taxpayers bear a greater and greater burden.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform published a study in September showing that to provide for the needs of illegal immigrants who've entered the U.S. under Biden, taxpayers must shoulder burden of an additional $20.4 billion every year.
FAIR revealed that this annual figure was not included in the estimated $140 billion per year that taxpayers were already footing, which compensates for the provision of services and benefits to the "longer-term" illegal immigrant population.
In 2018 – years before the border crisis ballooned under Biden – Forbes reported that Americans cross-subsidized health care for illegal immigrants to the tune of $18.5 billion a year.
A new Los Angeles Times/YouGov survey conducted between Dec. 9 and 14 highlighted how the Biden administration's immigration policies are widely unpopular.
The Center Square reported that 64% of respondents said illegal immigration is a problem while 42% said that they should be ejected to their countries of origin.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who announced this week that he was suing the Biden administration over a rule that penalizes taxpayers to pay down the cost of illegal immigration, said that the Biden administration "is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to take care of themselves. Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other American."
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