The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare recently released data showing that outlays for emergency medical services for illegal aliens totaled over $19 million in Fiscal Year 2025, all paid for by Idaho taxpayers. 

This is just a small portion of the overall medical costs incurred by the state of Idaho, let alone the cost of other services illegal aliens use and abuse at no cost to themselves. Using data from a recent Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) study, we can determine that illegal aliens account for about $60 million in state tax receipts. With the cost of emergency medical services already accounting for nearly a third of illegal alien state tax receipt revenue, the costs of illegal aliens to the state quickly exceed their meager tax contributions. This includes the vast array of services offered to illegal aliens, from law enforcement to housing to medical care.

In fact, the same study reports that the net cost of illegal aliens to Idaho taxpayers is around $302 million. Illegal aliens in Idaho contribute around $125 million in combined state and federal taxes, but use taxpayer-provided services that cost $427 million. The net cost of each illegal alien is $4,880. It has long been known that immigration (legal or otherwise) from low-development countries (“third-world” countries) is a drain on any society with generous welfare benefits, especially here in the United States. Milton Friedman remarked that: 

“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state… As long as you have a welfare state, I do not believe you can have a unilateral open immigration.” 

Multiple studies have recently supported this point:

• A study by the Center for Immigration Studies found, “Illegal immigrants are a net fiscal drain, meaning they receive more in government services than they pay in taxes… The fundamental reason that illegal immigrants are a net drain is that they have a low average education level, which results in low average earnings and tax payments. It also means a large share qualify for welfare programs, often receiving benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children. Like their less-educated and low-income U.S.-born counterparts, the tax payments of illegal immigrants do not come close to covering the cost they create.”
• Multiple Dutch studies have shown that immigration from almost all non-Western countries is a net drain on the public finance. In a study on immigration to the Netherlands, asylum seekers from Latin America — where a large majority of our illegal aliens (“asylum seekers”) arrive from — are a net drain of 405k Euros ($472k) over their lifetime in contributions to the economy.
• Multiple studies, including one conducted in the United States, show that immigration drives up housing costs. This is simple supply and demand in action. Idaho is grappling with some of the highest housing costs in the nation, and increasing supply through deregulation and decreasing demand from those unlawfully residing here are two sides of the same coin for reducing housing costs.
• Illegal immigration drives down wages in Idaho. Businesses that employ illegal immigrants aren’t doing it as a kindness; they are instead exploiting cheap labor. Not only is the labor itself cheap, but it's also subsidized by the taxpayer. Since their wages are on the lower end of the income scale, they obtain numerous benefits from medical care to housing, all using fraudulent Social Security numbers. This is corporate welfare dressed up as compassion, and it has happened across Idaho for decades.

It is clear illegal immigration is a net burden on our economy and the Idaho taxpayer. We earned a win when the Legislature passed House Bill 135 this past session, prohibiting the use of non-emergency welfare for illegals, but this is clearly not enough. The Idaho Freedom Foundation is committed to ending illegal immigration in Idaho to the benefit of Idaho citizens, who will see increased wages, lower housing costs, and lower taxes as a result of rigorous enforcement of federal immigration law.