US

Docs: Obama Amnesty To Cost Half A Billion Dollars, Expand Federal Workforce By More Than 3,000

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

The federal government will spend $484 million, if not more, and expand the federal workforce by 3,100 in order to implement President Barack Obama’s new executive amnesty plans.

The additional costs, laid out in a document obtained by Judicial Watch, are based on the assumption that 60 percent of the undocumented immigrants who are eligible for Obama’s amnesty through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) will elect to file a claim.

If those estimates hold true, and if a federal judge’s injunction against Obama’s amnesty is overturned, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) “might ultimately need to increase its total program costs of between $324 and $484 million per year,” the document states.

The costs include $7.8 million in annual rent payments for a 280,000-square-foot facility in Virginia which will be used to process DACA and DAPA claims.

The agency expects that in the first 18 months after Obama’s Nov. 20 amnesty announcement it will process 4 million new claims.

USCIS will also spend $1.5 million on renovations and furniture, $4 million on electronics equipment, $2.5 million in computer equipment, and $850,000 for a security upgrade at the Crystal City facility. Barcode readers and printers will cost $1 million. Security guard services for the facility will also exceed $1 million. The documents reviewed by Judicial Watch also show that $3 million will be spent on a new computer system. Another $900,000 will be spent on video teleconference equipment.

Projected payroll to man the facility will reach $21 million for the current fiscal year, the document reveals.

Obama’s amnesty will have much larger long-term costs, according to one policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Robert Rector estimated that the government will expend $2 trillion over the next five decades in additional benefits and increased government expenditures devoted to DACA and DAPA recipients.

States are expected to incur billions of dollars in additional benefits and services expenditures.

Follow Chuck on Twitter