Illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. send $50 billion in remittances to their home countries each year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The World Bank estimates that number is even higher, closer to $120 billion.

To put that figure into context, $50 billion is the same amount as the U.S. government’s annual foreign aid budget, notes the New York Times. It’s the operating budget of a midsize country, or in America’s case, enough to fund North Carolina and Maine for an entire year.

Nearly a quarter of that money is sent to family members in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Those three countries collected $11.8 billion, adding 10 percent to each nation’s gross domestic product.

Approximately 126,000 illegal immigrants emigrated from these three nations to the U.S. since last October and federal officials estimate at least 95,500 more will enter next year.

The Central American governments have encouraged the high levels of emigration because it is earning their economy billions of dollars! For every illegal alien that sneaks into the U.S. and remits money back home, that grand total remittance number only grows. But what if the millions of U.S. jobs now filled by illegal aliens were done by American workers earning better wages, paying more in taxes and spending their money in their communities rather than sending it abroad?

Americans are the ones forced to pick up the $113 billion tab for taking care of the country’s 12 million illegal immigrants. Is it the responsibility of taxpaying citizens to cover the cost of illegal immigration and the government’s aid to these countries while illegal workers continue to send their money overseas to send $50 billion overseas?