By: Ted Dabrowski
Add as much as $410 million to the amount Chicago is spending on illegal immigrants this year as a result of the country’s open border policy and the city’s continued sanctuary status.
Chalkbeat recently reported that the number of migrant children in CPS this year, depending on how migrants are defined, is somewhere between 8,900 to 17,000. At an operating cost of $24,132 per student, the additional taxpayer costs of educating those students range from $215 million to $410 million.
Those costs are not typically reported in the amount of spending being diverted from Chicago residents and toward illegal immigrants. Overall spending on migrants continues to mount as the state, Chicago and Cook County increase their migrant budgets for health care, housing, transportation, etc. The state budget, currently being negotiated in the General Assembly, includes another $182 million for migrants and more than $440 million for Medicaid-lite coverage for those here illegally. The extra $182 million is part of a commitment that includes a $70 million increase by both Chicago and Cook County. Those numbers are on top of the $2 billion “welcoming costs” Wirepoints documented earlier in the year.
The migrant student count at CPS as reported by Chalkbeat depends on who you ask. Here’s how they reported it:
- Chicago Public Schools says the district is currently serving 8,900 students who arrived since August 2022, including those who passed through the southern border and were bused to Chicago from Texas. The district uses five criteria to identify this cohort: students who speak languages other than English at home, have been identified as students in temporary living situations, are new to the district arriving after August 2022, were born outside of the country, or are listed on the city’s Department of Family and Support Services shelter roster.
- The Illinois State Board of Education, on the other hand, says any student not born in the U.S. or Puerto Rico who has been attending school in this country for less than three years is eligible for the Immigrant Education Program. Chicago estimates roughly 17,000 students fit this definition. Chicago just started to collect this data in November 2023 and school staff are collecting the birth country and enrollment date of students.
The difference in the response from CPS and the state education department reveals a much bigger problem. The real number of illegal immigrants making their way to Illinois by any means is far larger than counting those bussed in by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Illinois and Chicago, both sanctuaries, are certainly attracting their share of the more than 10 million migrants who’ve crossed the border under President Biden’s policies. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates 845,000 illegal immigrants, including children, are in Illinois. The net costs after taking into account their economic contributions? FAIR puts it at some $3.4 billion per year ($4 billion minus state tax collections from migrants, estimated at 16% of total). And that’s a conservative estimate if you look at what the U.S. House Homeland Security committee calculates.
So for those wondering how many dollars are being diverted from Chicago and Illinois residents to take care of non-citizens – the number is far larger than anything you’ll typically see reported.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Wirepoints’ 2023 School District Report Cards
- ‘Welcoming’ programs increase the cost of illegal immigration in Illinois by at least $2.2 billion
- ‘The Governor’s Office of New Americans’: Yes, there is one, and it’s getting money for unknown purposes
- New Trier School District set to produce next $8 million superintendent pensioner
- The big myth that needs debunking: Illinois needs more money for education
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I appreciate that Wirepoints highlights the craziness going on with the schools in Illinois. But I have to ask if there’s anyone who cares? The electorate just keeps voting for the criminals that are fleecing the population with these taxes. I guess they like to get bilked.
^^^post of the day award^^^
I’ve said this before. Most of those who vote for this are also on the receiving end. State workers and their families/Welfare-food stamps-free daycare-subsidized housing-free meals for kids/many on Medicaid and much more. All these people add up to a sizable voting block. The Free Stuff Army is huge-probably over 2M not counting state employees and their families who continue to vote for the status quo. Don’t bite (or vote against) the hand that feeds you.
I just wonder who’s the dimrod who thumbs down every post that’s 100% true.
And without explaining themselves…
Idiot’s never explain themselve……..cause they can’t!
Expensive virtue signaling by Pritzker, Lightfoot, Johnson, Preckwinkle and others. That’s $410 million per year and will grow exponentially once CPS and CTU bake in permanent increases into the budget. Also, a nice FU to minority citizens especially.
It should say “Spent on salaries, benefits, and pensions” for people who are supposed to be providing an education for the new generation. Complete waste of money. Results are just horrible.
The blame for this lies at the feet of Biden and Pritzker. Mumbling, stumbling bumbling Joe let them in and Pritzker said we welcome them. What a disaster!
Wirepoints Readers you read that right. Bidet has sent Chicago a $410 million bill that nobody was even consulted about. And it’s a bill that will keep on billing.
Unfettered illegal immigration will be the undoing of the American republic.
My advice to everyone is to convert your dollars into anything tangible as fast as you can as they’ll be scrap paper before you’re Old Joe’s age.