The refugee crisis is more costly than Americans realize.

According to a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), U.S. taxpayers spent about $150 billion last year on government benefits and assistance to help the 20 million illegal immigrants in the country.

And most of the costs are borne by state and local governments.

In Massachusetts, Republican leaders say there is a billion-dollar hole in the state’s coffers – and they accuse the Democratic-controlled government of quietly diverting taxpayer money to deal with the refugee crisis.

On Tuesday, the state Republican Party filed a Freedom of Information request demanding that Governor Maura Healey disclose Massachusetts’ entire migrant budget, claiming the true cost has been hidden from the public.

“The Healey-Driscoll administration has kept nearly a billion dollars in spending secret and kept Massachusetts residents in the dark,” Massachusetts Republican Rep. Amy Carnevale told Fox News.

“They withheld important information on 600 incidents involving police, fire and rescue services. By blocking journalists at every turn, the government obstructed the flow of information to the public.”

But FAIR estimates that in 2023 alone, the cost of government services to care for illegal immigrants and their children in the Bay State will amount to nearly $3 billion.

In New York, the Comptroller estimated that the refugee crisis will cost state taxpayers $4.3 billion by 2025 and New York City taxpayers $3 billion in fiscal year 2024 alone.

But FAIR estimates that the estimated 1.45 million illegal immigrants and children in the state will cost taxpayers nearly $10 billion by 2023.

While most states focus on emergency housing and assistance when calculating spending on migrants, FAIR’s assessment took into account the full range of government services that migrants receive during their stay in the United States.

Services such as education, medical expenses, law enforcement, legal costs and social benefits were important factors that FAIR examined in its study.

These factors, as well as differences between tax revenues and expenditures, contributed to discrepancies between government reports and estimated actual costs of hosting migrants.

FAIR also took into account the costs of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants – something that is not taken into account in many reports.

“As long as we continue to allow millions of people to enter the country illegally every year, the costs will obviously continue to rise,” FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman told the Washington Post.

“It just seems like common sense. If you brought in lots and lots of people, many of them working illegally for very low wages, there would be enormous social costs,” he added.

And not a single state in the country has been spared. According to FAIR projections, West Virginia has spent the least; the cost of caring for migrants and their children still amounts to over $33 million.

However, this is only one of seven states that allocated less than $100 million to combat the crisis.

It is estimated that half of the US states have had to shell out more than $100 million, while the bill for 19 states is well over a billion dollars.

According to the FAIR study, California led the nation, spending nearly $31 billion to care for illegal immigrants and their children.

Texas followed with more than $13 billion, Florida came in at more than $8 billion, then New York and New Jersey.

Total spending by American taxpayers was even higher, according to FAIR estimates, at $182 billion.

However, illegal immigrants pay taxes – and FAIR estimates that their contribution to local, state and federal coffers is about $32 billion.

Nevertheless, FAIR estimates that the remaining costs for the American taxpayer would be $150 billion.

“The argument that illegal aliens pay more in taxes than they receive in services is completely misleading,” Mehlman said.

The enormous costs to taxpayers have risen rapidly since around 2017; the true cost of illegal immigration was estimated at around $116 billion at the time, according to FAIR.

That means the cost to U.S. taxpayers has increased by about $35 billion in just five years, FAIR found.

Between March 2023 and July 2024, more than 1.3 million people were released into the United States by Customs and Border Protection – not counting the numerous people who entered the country undetected, the so-called “goaways”.

“It is an atrocity to spend taxpayer dollars to support and assist people who don’t even have the legal right to be here because the federal government has enacted policies that allow it,” said Chris Clem, former border patrol chief of Arizona’s Yuma Sector.

“That’s another incentive because all they have to do is get arrested, turn themselves in and get released. They get opportunities that you and I don’t get.”