What Governments Spend Per Undocumented Immigrant — Per Month

This write-up collects documented cases in which U.S. governments — city, state, and federal — spent very large sums on services for undocumented / illegal immigrants and recent unlawful entrants, and it states each figure as dollars per person (or per household) per month, tied to a place and a year. Daily rates are converted at day × 30.4; annual figures at year ÷ 12.

Scope reminder (see charter): this is about spending on non–U.S. citizens who entered outside the full legal process — not homeless American citizens or lawful residents. Where a program serves a mixed population, that is flagged.

Sourcing labels used below: official (city/state comptrollers, mayors' offices, GAO, CBO, City Council hearings), reporting (major news outlets), and advocacy estimate (think tanks with a stated position on immigration, e.g. FAIR, Common Sense Institute, Fiscal Policy Institute, Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance). Advocacy estimates are included because they attempt the per-person math officials often avoid, but they are labeled and their caveats noted. Full source list: sources.md.

Ordered from the highest dollars-per-month figure to the lowest. "Derived" marks a figure we computed from a total and a population count rather than one an official published directly.

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The Claims — Dollars Per Illegal Per Month

• ~$14,700 per household per month — Massachusetts — FY2025 (mixed population)

  • Report: State Emergency Assistance (EA) family-shelter weekly cost report; weekly average reported at $3,389 per family (≈ $176,000/year).
  • Total budget: EA shelter spending surpassed $1 billion in FY2025 (≈ $819M+ reported mid-year), after ~$584M in FY2024; roughly $45M/month.
  • People covered: program-wide family caseload (thousands of families). As of mid-2025 the state reported only ~1,220 of ~3,439 families were migrants/refugees/asylum seekers — fewer than half, so this per-family figure is program-wide, not migrant-only.
  • Source type: advocacy summary of an official state report.
  • Covered by: Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance; Fox News; Boston Globe.
  • Article: https://www.massfiscal.org/latest_state_report_shows_weekly_cost_of_emergency_family_shelter_rises_to_3_389_per_family

• ~$11,800 per migrant household per month — New York City — 2024

  • Report: NYC City Council hearing, March 11, 2024; Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park cited a per-diem of $388 per household per night (shelter + food). Prior: $383 (Aug 2023, Mayor Adams); peaked $394 (Oct 10, 2023).
  • Total budget: just over $4 billion spent on housing/services since spring 2022 (as of Mar 2024); projected crisis total ~$10.6B through FY2025.
  • People covered: ~65,000 migrants in the city's care (Mar 2024).
  • Source type: official (City Council hearing) via reporting.
  • Covered by: New York Daily News; Legal Insurrection (citing City Hall data via Washington Examiner / NY Post).
  • Article: https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/03/11/per-migrant-care-costs-in-nyc-climb-again-even-as-city-hall-pushes-to-reduce-costs/

• ~$11,800 per migrant per month — New York City — 2024

  • Report: February 2024 NYC City Hall data cited a rate of $387 per day per migrant.
  • Total budget: part of the >$4B cumulative NYC migrant spend; FY2025 migrant budget announced at $4.05 billion.
  • People covered: ~64,800 migrants in care (Feb 2024).
  • Source type: official data via reporting/advocacy.
  • Covered by: Legal Insurrection; @profstonge post ("$387 per day × 65,000").
  • Article: https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/new-york-city-spending-an-eye-popping-amount-on-illegal-immigrants-every-day/

• ~$11,600 per household per month — New York City — 2023

  • Report: Fiscal Policy Institute, "Breaking Down the Fiscal Impact of City Aid to Migrants" (Sep 12, 2023): city "currently spending $380 per household per day," projecting no efficiencies to lower it.
  • Total budget: projected asylum-seeker costs of $10.9 billion over FY2024–FY2025 (city share ~$8.9B); FY24 budget gap widened from $5.1B to $9.2B.
  • People covered: tens of thousands of migrant households in shelter.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate (progressive-leaning think tank) using city budget data.
  • Covered by: Fiscal Policy Institute.
  • Article: https://fiscalpolicy.org/breaking-down-the-fiscal-impact-of-city-aid-to-migrants

• ~$11,340 per person per month — New York City — FY2024 (strongest, official)

  • Report: NYC Comptroller, "Comparing Per Diem Hotel and Service Costs for Shelter for Asylum Seekers" (July 2024): all-in $373 per person per day for FY2024 (≈ $156/day hotel + $176/day services for DHS hotels; ~$404/day via other agencies). Projected to ~$354 (FY2025), ~$336 (FY2026).
  • Total budget: NYC asylum-seeker spending peaked at $3.75 billion in FY2024.
  • People covered: citywide sheltered asylum-seeker census (peaked ~65,000).
  • Source type: official (NYC Comptroller — not an advocacy group).
  • Covered by: Office of the NYC Comptroller.
  • Article: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/comparing-per-diem-hotel-and-service-costs-for-shelter-for-asylum-seekers/

• ~$11,250 per person per month — New York City — 2025

  • Report: Citizens Budget Commission watchdog analysis (via ABC7, Apr 7, 2025): an average $370 per day to house an undocumented immigrant, versus $207/day for someone experiencing homelessness. CBC's Ana Champeny: the per-day cost "has been stubbornly high... about that $370 level since the crisis began."
  • Total budget: more than $7 billion spent on housing/care for undocumented immigrants over the prior few years, per the city's Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs.
  • People covered: >44,500 in care at the time (down from ~65,000).
  • Source type: reporting on a watchdog (CBC) analysis of official data.
  • Covered by: ABC7 New York.
  • Article: https://abc7ny.com/post/watchdog-questions-high-cost-sanctuary-new-york-city/16122940/

• ~$6,700 per family (of four) per month — Chicago — 2023 (derived)

  • Report: WTTW, "Johnson Sets Aside $150M to Care for Migrants in 2024" (Oct 12, 2023): a projected $361M 2023 cost was framed as roughly $21,000 per person per year or over $80,000 per migrant family of four.
  • Total budget: $361M projected for 2023 (actual paid came in lower at ~$138M); $150M set aside for 2024.
  • People covered: ~37,000–40,000 arrivals by early 2024.
  • Source type: reporting (per-person framing is a derivation from the projection).
  • Covered by: WTTW Chicago News.
  • Article: https://news.wttw.com/2023/10/12/johnson-sets-aside-150m-care-migrants-2024-less-half-2023-costs

• ~$6,140 per hotel room per month — New York City (Roosevelt Hotel) — 2023

  • Report: NYC signed a $220 million, three-year contract to convert the Roosevelt Hotel's 1,025 rooms into an emergency migrant shelter and intake center, at a starting nightly rate of about $202 per room.
  • Total budget: $220 million (three years).
  • People covered: 1,025 rooms as a citywide intake hub.
  • Source type: reporting.
  • Covered by: NBC New York; City Journal.
  • Article: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/migrant-crisis/nyc-converting-historic-roosevelt-hotel-to-emergency-migrant-shelter/4332405/

• ~$3,080 per migrant per month — New York State — FY2025 (derived)

  • Report: Gov. Kathy Hochul's FY2025 budget (Jan 2024) added $2.4 billion for migrant costs (shelter, health care, emergency housing, legal aid), on top of ~$1.9B already committed — about $4.3B combined; $500M drawn from the rainy-day fund. Per-migrant monthly is derived from $2.4B ÷ ~65,000 in NYC care ÷ 12.
  • Total budget: ~$4.3 billion committed state-wide; NYS Comptroller reported ~$2.65B spent through March 2026.
  • People covered: state funds flow largely to the ~65,000-person NYC migrant caseload (state contribution on top of city per-diem).
  • Source type: official (state budget) via reporting.
  • Covered by: Gothamist; WCAX; NY1; NYS Comptroller.
  • Article: https://gothamist.com/news/gov-hochul-unveils-2024-budget-with-24b-for-migrant-spending

• ~$1,750 per person per month — Chicago — 2023 (derived)

  • Report: WTTW (Oct 12, 2023) reporting a projected 2023 cost of $361M framed as ~$21,000 per person per year.
  • Total budget: $361M projected for 2023 (actual ~$138M); Illinois state added $820M+ FY2023–2025 for non-citizen support ($478M for asylum seekers).
  • People covered: ~40,000 Chicago arrivals.
  • Source type: reporting (per-person figure derived).
  • Covered by: WTTW Chicago News; FOX 32 Chicago (state figures).
  • Article: https://news.wttw.com/2023/10/12/johnson-sets-aside-150m-care-migrants-2024-less-half-2023-costs

• ~$1,175 per migrant student per month — Denver metro — 2024 (derived)

  • Report: Common Sense Institute, "Updated Costs: Denver Migrants" (Nov 2024): schools spent $228 million annually for 16,197 new migrant students (≈ $14,100 per student per year).
  • Total budget: education was the largest slice of the institute's $356 million estimated total.
  • People covered: 16,197 migrant students enrolled in Denver-metro schools.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate (Colorado think tank) using city/school data.
  • Covered by: Common Sense Institute; Denver Gazette; Fox News.
  • Article: https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/colorado/research/housing-and-our-community/updated-costs-denver-migrants

• ~$731 per illegal alien per month — Nationwide (federal+state+local) — 2023 (advocacy / debated)

  • Report: FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers" (2023, 2022 data): $8,776 per illegal alien (or U.S.-born child of one) per year — gross ~$182B minus ~$32B taxes = net ~$150.7B/year; ~$1,156 per U.S. taxpayer.
  • Total budget: net ~$150.7 billion per year (federal, state, and local combined).
  • People covered: 15.5M+ illegal aliens plus 5.4M U.S.-born children of illegal aliens.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate (reduced-immigration group); methodology (counting U.S.-born children and shared public-good costs) is contested. A House Budget Committee report (May 2024) reached broadly similar conclusions.
  • Covered by: FAIRUS.org; PR Newswire; House Budget Committee.
  • Article: https://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers-2023

• ~$590 per immigrant per month — California — 2023 (advocacy / derived)

  • Report: FAIR-style state fiscal-cost analysis circulated in reporting/social media: taxpayer cost of $7,074 per immigrant in 2023.
  • Total budget: ~$22.8 billion annually (education, health care, law enforcement, welfare, other); ~$30.9B counting children.
  • People covered: California's illegal-immigrant population and dependents.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate; no single independent news article confirms the per-person figure.
  • Covered by: cited in social-media analysis (@nettermike, Dec 2023); aligns with FAIR state-level cost data.
  • Article: https://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers-2023

• ~$381 per person per month — New York City (prepaid debit cards) — 2024 (food benefit only)

  • Report: NYC's $53 million Immediate Response Card pilot (vendor Mobility Capital Finance) loaded about $12.52 per person per day for 28 days for food at bodegas/grocery/convenience stores.
  • Total budget: $53 million (one-year pilot); city projected ~$7.2M/year savings vs. boxed food.
  • People covered: migrant families in city shelters (pilot). A City Council member sought an investigation; the contract was not renewed and ended January 2025.
  • Source type: reporting.
  • Covered by: Fox News; CBS New York; Fox 5 NY; congressional letter to Mayor Adams (Apr 2024).
  • Article: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-city-begins-giving-illegal-immigrants-prepaid-debit-cards-part-53-million-pilot-program

• ~$372 per immigrant per month — Texas — 2022 (advocacy / derived)

  • Report: FAIR-style state fiscal-cost analysis: taxpayer cost of $4,466 per immigrant.
  • Total budget: ~$9.9 billion annually (education, health care, law enforcement, etc.).
  • People covered: Texas's illegal-immigrant population and dependents.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate; no single independent news article confirms the per-person figure.
  • Covered by: cited in social-media analysis (@nettermike, Dec 2023); aligns with FAIR state-level cost data.
  • Article: https://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers-2023

• ~$329 per foreign national per month — Denver — 2022–2024 (advocacy / disputed / derived)

  • Report: Common Sense Institute estimated $356 million in total city + regional education + health-care costs for the ~43,000–45,000 migrants who arrived over two years — about $7,900 per foreign national cumulative (≈ $329/month over 24 months). To fund a ~$90M "newcomer" program, Denver cut ~$45.5M from the city budget (including ~$8.4M police, ~$2.5M fire).
  • Total budget: $356 million estimated (city ~$79M through Nov 2024; plus education ~$228M and health care ~$49M).
  • People covered: ~43,000–45,000 migrants since Dec 2022.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate, disputed by Denver city agencies as inflated.
  • Covered by: Common Sense Institute; Denver Gazette; Fox News; 9News (city pushback).
  • Article: https://www.denvergazette.com/2024/11/27/study-finds-immigrant-surges-in-denver-have-cost-356-million-1ae619d6-acfd-11ef-adb4-935b212700f2/

• ~$266 per illegal alien per month — Nationwide (federal share only) — 2023 (advocacy / debated)

  • Report: Federal-only portion of the migrant fiscal burden estimated at about $3,187 per migrant per year (up ~45% since 2017), as reported alongside FAIR/House data.
  • Total budget: federal share ~$66–67 billion of the ~$150B annual total.
  • People covered: the national undocumented population and dependents.
  • Source type: advocacy estimate reported in news.
  • Covered by: New York Post (Oct 23, 2024, citing FAIR/House data).
  • Article: https://nypost.com/2024/10/23/us-news/migrant-crisis-cost-150bn-in-2023-local-towns-cutting-costs-to-cope/

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Official Corroboration — CBO (non-partisan)

Not a per-person figure, but the strongest official confirmation of the scale: the Congressional Budget Office (June 2025) found that four states — New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Colorado — willingly spent a cumulative $3.3 billion in 2023 to provide food, shelter, health care, and other benefits to the surge migrant population (NYC alone ~$2.6B; Massachusetts ~$0.5B; Illinois/Chicago ~$0.4B; Colorado <$50M). Nationally, CBO estimated the surge produced a direct net cost of $9.2 billion to state and local budgets in 2023. (Source: CBO, "Effects of the Surge in Immigration on State and Local Budgets in 2023," https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61256.)

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What the Cases Show

1. The per-person numbers are large and, in the flagship cases, official. New York City's own Comptroller — not an advocacy group — published $373 per person per day for FY2024 (~$11,340/month). That is the strongest single data point in this file, and a city watchdog put the 2025 figure at ~$370/day versus $207/day for a homeless resident.
2. The scale is measured in billions per jurisdiction: ~$10.6B (NYC crisis total), ~$4.3B (NY State), $1B+ (Massachusetts EA), $820M+ (Illinois), $356M (Denver estimate) — with the non-partisan CBO confirming $3.3B across four states in 2023 alone.
3. Costs came with procurement red flags — no-bid migrant-services contracts (a city audit found NYC taxpayers overcharged millions) and an overpriced prepaid-card vendor deal that a City Council member asked to investigate — connecting this sub-investigation to the parent Fraud investigation.
4. Per-person math lands in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per person per year, up to ~$136,000/year for a fully sheltered NYC individual at the official per-diem.
5. Mixed-population and advocacy caveats are stated wherever the number is not migrant-specific (Massachusetts EA, where fewer than half the sheltered families are migrants) or comes from an organization with a policy position (Denver's Common Sense Institute, disputed by the city; FAIR's nationwide estimate, methodology contested).

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Evidence Rating

Claim	Rating
NYC $373/person/day FY2024 ($11,340/mo); ~$3.75B FY2024	WELL-DOCUMENTED (official Comptroller)
NYC $388/night household 2024; $370/day 2025 (CBC)	WELL-DOCUMENTED (hearing + watchdog)
NY State ~$4.3B committed; ~$3,080/migrant/mo derived	WELL-DOCUMENTED total; derived per-person
Massachusetts $1B+ EA, $3,389/family/week	WELL-DOCUMENTED (state report) — mixed population
Illinois $820M+ / Chicago ~$138M–361M; ~$21K/person/yr	STRONG EVIDENCE total; derived per-person
Denver $356M / $7,900 per person	MODERATE EVIDENCE (advocacy estimate, disputed by city)
CBO $3.3B four states 2023	WELL-DOCUMENTED (non-partisan CBO)
FAIR $150.7B / $8,776 per person/yr	DEBATED (advocacy estimate, methodology contested)
California $7,074 / Texas $4,466 per immigrant/yr	DEBATED (advocacy-style estimate)

See sources.md for the full source list, and the charter for scope.

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Last Updated: 2026-07-03 — Rebuilt into the per-month, one-claim-per-bullet format, ordered highest to lowest dollars per person/household per month, each bullet carrying its report, total budget, population covered, covering outlet, and article URL. Cases: NYC (five distinct claims + Roosevelt Hotel + debit cards), NY State, Massachusetts, Chicago/Illinois, Denver (city + schools), the FAIR nationwide estimate, California, Texas, and CBO official corroboration.