- Musk co-leads the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Illegal immigration cost American taxpayers as much as 2.6 percent of the $6.1 trillion in federal spending across the U.S. government for the entire 2023 fiscal year.
According to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), this amounts to $150.7 billion.
If the figure is accurate, the staggering amount of money going to illegal immigrants entering and living in the U.S. could rival the spending of some other agencies.
For example, the federal government will have spent $151 billion on safety programs for veterans and their survivors by 2023, according to the think tank The Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Musk and former 2024 presidential candidate Ramaswamy co-lead Donald Trump’s temporary agency DOGE, which aims to reduce the federal government’s waste and excessive spending.
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In addition to illegal immigration, DOGE’s report also focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the California High Speed Rail Project, and grants for diversity abroad.
It even went after the federal government for deciding to spend $2.5 million on a Super Bowl ad for the Census.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) report found that illegal immigrants will cost US taxpayers a whopping $150.7 billion by the year 2023.
Musk’s account attacks the federal government for using only 12 percent of the space in their agencies’ headquarters in Washington, DC, as a huge swath of employees never returned to the office after COVID-19.
Although the government still pays money for these office spaces, much of it remains unused or only partially used by employees.
In the social media post sent Monday night about immigrants, Musk and Ramaswamy pointed out the comparison of this spending to other massive initiatives in American history.
For example, the Apollo Space Program cost $257 billion when adjusted for inflation, which is about $1 billion more than what illegal immigrants cost American taxpayers last year.
The crisis has also cost more than $120 billion more in just one year than the top-secret World War II program to develop the first atomic bombs. The Manhattan Project cost $30 billion, adjusted for inflation.
The Hoover Dam only cost $1 billion, the X-post notes.
Musk and Ramaswamy are not necessarily out to destroy every program or initiative they analyze or attack on social media.
But they point to overspending and waste in areas where they think the agency’s goal can be achieved at a lower cost to help pull the U.S. out of its massive debt hole.
Tens of millions of undocumented immigrants are estimated to be living in the U.S. — up from 11 million in 2022 thanks to President Joe Biden’s migrant crisis
Musk is helping lead efforts to reduce wasteful spending at the federal government level
When it comes to illegal immigration, Trump wants to deport all those undocumented people living in the US when he takes office for his second term in January.
Trump says the mass deportation initiative is a day one problem.
The $150.7 billion spent on illegal immigration in 2023 is equivalent to about 19 percent of total U.S. defense spending in the same year.