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Does illegal immigration cost NJ households $2,300 a year? What a new GOP report counts, and what it leaves out.
A new report from Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Ocean) estimates that illegal immigration costs New Jersey’s state and local governments $8.2 billion a year. By his math, that works out to about $1,747 per worker and $2,333 per household.
The 39-page report was released in mid-August and updates Kanitra’s 2024 study, which put the cost at more than $7 billion. Kanitra called New Jersey “hopelessly compromised” and said he has asked the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the House Judiciary Committee to step in.
The report has not been independently verified by the state. For residents trying to judge what it means for their own cost of living, how the total was built matters as much as the total itself.
Where the $8.2 billion goes
| Category | Estimated annual cost |
|---|---|
| Public education | $7.14 billion |
| Public safety and essential services | $515 million |
| Government administration | $243 million |
| Cover All Kids health coverage | $169 million |
| Emergency medical care | $72 million |
| Legal defense in deportation cases | $26.1 million |
| Food security programs | $14.6 million |
| Housing assistance | $5 million |
| College financial aid | $3.8 million |
Kanitra’s figures come from federal and state data, records from the Office of Legislative Services, and Open Public Records Act requests to state agencies.
Most of the total is school spending, and most of that is for U.S. citizens
Education makes up about 87% of the total. The report splits it into two parts:
- About $1.28 billion to educate an estimated 41,000 undocumented minors
- About $5.86 billion to educate an estimated 188,000 school-age children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents
Children born in the U.S. are American citizens, and the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed birthright citizenship in June. The state must educate them like any other child. The court’s 1982 ruling in Plyler v. Doe also requires public schools to enroll undocumented children. That means about 71% of the $8.2 billion goes to educating citizen children, and nearly 87% is education spending the state is legally required to provide.
The report prices each student at New Jersey’s average per-pupil cost of $29,978. That average spreads fixed costs like buildings, administration and debt service across every student. Adding one student to an existing classroom usually costs a district less than the average, so this method probably overstates what these students actually add to school budgets.
The population number is higher than other estimates
The report estimates that about 737,000 undocumented immigrants live in New Jersey, or about 1 in 13 residents. It starts from a baseline of 815,900 set by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group that advocates for less immigration, and then adjusts that number.
Nonpartisan researchers count fewer people:
- The Pew Research Center estimated about 600,000 in 2023.
- The Migration Policy Institute estimated about 476,000 in 2023.
If the lower estimates are closer to the truth, most of the report’s per-person costs would shrink by the same proportion.
Taxes paid are acknowledged but not subtracted
The $8.2 billion is a gross figure. The report notes, but does not subtract, an estimate from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a tax policy think tank, that undocumented immigrants paid about $1.3 billion in New Jersey state and local taxes in 2022. Kanitra says those NJ tax collections offset only about 16% of the cost.
ITEP found those taxes split roughly into thirds:
- Sales and excise taxes
- Property taxes, paid directly or through rent
- Income and payroll taxes
ITEP also estimated that undocumented immigrants made up about 7% of New Jersey’s workforce.
What it means for household costs
Most of the estimated cost reaches residents through school budgets, which in New Jersey are paid for mainly by local property taxes. Kanitra also argues that illegal immigration pushes up housing costs. The report puts the effect at $4,770 to $28,370 on the price of a typical home and $24 to $79 a month on rent. These housing figures are not part of the $8.2 billion.
What’s being done
State lawmakers have mostly moved in the opposite direction from Kanitra’s recommendations. In March, Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed three bills into law:
- One writes the state’s 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive into law. It limits when state and local police can help federal immigration agents.
- One limits when law enforcement officers can wear masks to hide their identity.
- One restricts government agencies and health care facilities from collecting and sharing information such as immigration status.
Republicans said the laws make communities less safe. The White House called them obstruction of federal enforcement.
Kanitra’s report proposes 15 bills, including:
- The Immigration Enforcement Support Act (A322)
- The Public Charge Transparency Act (A330)
- A requirement that employers use E-Verify
The Legislature is controlled by Democrats, so these bills face long odds.
Two angles most coverage has missed
Washington is shifting part of the cost to New Jersey. The federal budget law signed in July 2025 lowers the federal share of emergency Medicaid for certain immigrants. For people who would qualify for Medicaid expansion except for their immigration status, the federal match drops from 90% to New Jersey’s standard 50% on Oct. 1.
Emergency Medicaid is the only Medicaid coverage undocumented adults can get, and hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of a patient’s status. So New Jersey taxpayers will pay a bigger share of this cost whatever happens with state immigration policy. The same law is expected to cut about $3.6 billion a year in federal Medicaid funding to New Jersey.
Enforcement has economic costs too. A National Bureau of Economic Research study of January to October 2025 found that immigration enforcement surges also reduced jobs for U.S.-born workers, especially men without college degrees. For every six undocumented male workers lost, one U.S.-born male worker also lost his job.
Construction was hit about twice as hard as the average. Employers generally took on less work instead of raising wages to attract replacements. That matters in New Jersey, where housing is one of the biggest cost-of-living pressures. Earlier, New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning think tank, estimated that deporting all of the state’s roughly 475,000 undocumented residents would eliminate about 42,000 jobs held by U.S.-born workers.
Undocumented immigrants do add costs to public services in New Jersey, and those costs are growing. How large they are depends mostly on three choices:
- Whether citizen children are counted
- Which population estimate is used
- Whether the taxes these residents pay are subtracted
Meanwhile, federal changes taking effect this fall will move more of the cost onto the state budget. The state’s own laws are pushing back against the stricter enforcement the report recommends.
Sources:
- Kanitra 2026 report
- Save Jersey: report summary
- KYW/Audacy: 2024 study comparison
- NJ Monitor: Medicaid fiscal abyss
- NJ Monitor: ITEP $1.3B study
- Inquirer: Pew 2023 NJ estimate
- MPI: NJ profile
- CU Boulder: NBER study
- NJPP: mass deportation impacts
- NJ Monitor: Sherrill signs immigration bills
- NPR: Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship
