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Undocumented-Immigrant Spending — Sub-Investigation Charter

Location​

This is a sub-investigation of the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse investigation:

~/BGit/Bryan_git/holon/pub/investigations/Fraud/undocumented/

Public investigation, served by the public Docusaurus site (port 5556):

http://localhost:5556/Fraud/undocumented/

Production site: https://holonhq.com

Purpose (What This Structure Is About)​

The goal of this directory is to document as much information as possible on the money that governments spend on undocumented / illegal immigrants — and, critically, to surface the cost-per-person figures that prove the scale of the problem.

We are collecting the strongest, most citable reports and cases that show a government budget spent specifically on services for people who are in the country without the full legal immigration process — undocumented immigrants, illegal entrants, and those who crossed or overstayed outside the lawful process.

A representative example of the kind of case we want:

In New York (city and state) during the Joe Biden administration years, budget documents and officials reported a very large sum spent in a single fiscal year on services for migrants / illegal immigrants. Reporting broke down how many people that covered and therefore how much money was spent per undocumented person.

We want many cases like this — each one showing:

  1. A large government dollar figure spent on undocumented / illegal immigrants
  2. The number of people that spending covered
  3. The resulting cost per undocumented person
  4. The jurisdiction, fiscal year, and program
  5. A credible, linkable source (official budget, IG report, city/state comptroller, GAO/CBO, court filing, or reputable news reporting)

Critical Scope Distinction​

This sub-investigation is about spending on non–U.S. citizens who are undocumented or entered without the full legal process — NOT spending on homeless American citizens or lawful residents.

  • IN SCOPE: shelter, housing, hotel contracts, food, cash cards / prepaid debit, medical / emergency Medicaid, education, legal services, transportation, and administrative costs spent specifically on undocumented / illegal immigrants and recent unlawful entrants.
  • OUT OF SCOPE: general anti-poverty or homelessness spending on U.S. citizens; lawful-immigrant integration programs where no undocumented-population figure exists; private charity with no government funding nexus.

When a program serves a mixed population, we note that and use the best available estimate of the undocumented share, with attribution.

What Belongs Here​

  • City / county / state migrant-services budgets (e.g. New York City, New York State, Illinois / Chicago, Massachusetts, California, Denver / Colorado)
  • Federal spending with a cost-per-person breakdown (HHS ORR / UAC housing, emergency Medicaid, education impact aid, FEMA Shelter and Services Program)
  • Per-person cost derivations from official budget lines divided by served-population counts
  • Hotel / shelter contracts, prepaid-card programs, and no-bid vendor deals tied to migrant services
  • Inspector General, comptroller, GAO, and CBO findings on undocumented-immigrant cost
  • Reputable estimates of nationwide net fiscal cost per undocumented immigrant

What Does Not Belong Here​

  • Spending on homeless U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents
  • General welfare spending with no undocumented-population figure
  • Immigration-policy opinion pieces with no dollar figures or population counts
  • Private-sector costs with no government funding nexus (belongs elsewhere or nowhere)

Inclusion & Evidence Standard​

A case belongs here if there is a credible, linkable source — an official budget document, comptroller / IG report, GAO or CBO analysis, court filing, or reputable news report — that states a government dollar figure spent on undocumented / illegal immigrants. Where possible, we compute or cite the cost per person.

Every figure carries attribution language ("according to the NYC Comptroller...", "the mayor's office projected...", "the report estimated...") and, where the population share is estimated rather than official, we say so. We document what the sources show and let readers evaluate them.

Reuse the parent investigation's evidence ratings (see ../README.mdx): WELL-DOCUMENTED, STRONG EVIDENCE, MODERATE EVIDENCE, EMERGING, SPECULATIVE, DEBATED, SUPPRESSED.

Directory Structure​

undocumented/ cloud.mdx # This file — charter / what the structure is about write_up.md # The write-up: cases proving large per-person spending Details/ # Optional: one file per jurisdiction or major case sources.md # Master list of source URLs (add as collected) evidence/ # Downloaded screenshots, PDFs, budget documents

write_up.md is the primary deliverable: a running write-up of the strongest documented cases proving that a lot of money was spent per undocumented person, each with its dollar figure, population count, per-person cost, jurisdiction, year, and source.

Guiding Principle​

This is not a partisan exercise. We document the dollars, the counts, the per-person math, and the sources — accurately and with attribution — regardless of which administration, party, or jurisdiction is responsible. The standard is: what does the budget document actually show was spent, on how many people, per person?

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