The analysis, done by the Mississippi State Auditor's Office, used an estimate of 22,000 illegal immigrants living in the state to estimate their cost to the public school system and to health care, such as emergency room visits. Those cost taxpayers approximately $25 million and $77 million respectively.
That cost may seem trivial compared to New York City, for example, where caring for illegals is costing taxpayers $4 billion this year, but rural Mississippi is known for being one of the poorest U.S. states where education and access to health care trail behind other states.
Mississippi auditor Shad White tells AFN the financial analysis proves it is not just border states that are paying the price for runaway illegal immigration.
"The real, unfortunate bottom line here is that the only big-picture solution for this problem is a secure southern border,” he says. “And, of course, Mississippi can't make that happen on our own.”
Regarding the analysis by his office, White says official data was difficult to find so the final estimate of $100 million is a conservative one.
“We use the most conservative possible estimates at every turn when we were calculating the amount of taxpayer money that went to benefit illegal immigrants and numbers,” he says. “They're probably more likely to be higher than what we said."
According to a related Fox News story, the Miss. Department of Education is barred from collecting citizenship information. The estimate of illegal immigrants attending public school, 2,500, came from a project at the University of Mississippi.
In a statement to Fox News, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Biden-Harris immigration policies “are endangering Americans and putting enormous financial strain on states all across our country — and it’s long past time to put a stop to it.”
