Just as Elon Musk and DOGE are exposing the federal government’s wasteful spending to the tune of billions of dollars, Connecticut residents deserve a similar audit. Their politicians have sanctimoniously proclaimed Connecticut to be a sanctuary state — while simultaneously admitting they’ve failed to track the costs illegal immigrants impose on taxpayers. The amount likely exceeds a billion dollars, and the problem certainly isn’t limited to Connecticut, which is a microcosm of a nationwide epidemic of prodigal spending on illegal immigrants.
Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM), which provides public policy information, admitted that the department has not quantified illegal immigration expenses because a report “would take costly and time-consuming academic research to develop an accurate figure.”
One estimate, compiled by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), reported that illegal immigration cost the state $1.3 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, between 113,000 and 225,000 migrants who currently live in the state receive services including medical care, in-state tuition, incarceration, legal services, shelter, and welfare.
Gov. Ned Lamont disputed the $1.3 billion number. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong resorted to ad hominem attacks, calling the report a “big fat dishonest, ugly racist, hateful lie.” Yet state leaders cannot produce a number of their own. In truth, the $1.3 billion is entirely plausible, and it is a significant sum of taxpayers’ money.
State lawmakers nonetheless continue to legislate through a veil of ignorance, apparently willing to increase spending without any grasp on the sums currently being expended. Currently, the General Assembly is considering expanding HUSKY Health eligibility regardless of immigration status. On Feb. 24, lawmakers passed emergency bills that provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that assist people here illegally.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/03/03/connecticut-cant-refute-estimate-showing-it-spent-1-3b-on-illegal-immigration-in-one-year/