Total Cost of Obama’s Executive Amnesty: $1.3 Trillion

U.S. taxpayers will shoulder a whopping $1.3 trillion in outlays thanks to President Obama’s executive action to grant amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The figure, calculated by Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector, counts all long-term liabilities created by amnesty even with expected tax revenue collected from the newly-minted workers.

Based on Rector’s calculations, which assume that at least 3.97 illegal immigrants would apply for and receive legal status under Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents (DAPA), and that the average DAPA beneficiary would have a 10th grade education, the costs would be immense.

Specifically, in 2010 dollars, the lifetime costs of Social Security benefits to DAPA beneficiaries would be about $1.3 trillion.

The sheer amount of available welfare and other benefits make such a calculation difficult.  In addition, Rector believes the amnesty combined with the generous welfare benefits will attract millions more illegal immigrants making the costs skyrocket.

“On average, the combined cost of means-tested welfare benefits currently received, the EITC and ACTC cash, and potential Obamacare benefits would come to $17,800 per year per DAPA family,” Rector’s testimony reads. “The aggregate cost would be over $35 billion per year.”

In terms of what DAPA eligible individuals would contribute in tax payments once they are “on the books,” Rector estimates that “Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) and federal income tax revenues would increase by about $7.2 billion per year.”