John Binder, Breitbart, December 6, 2019

American taxpayers are being forced to pay about $60 billion to educate illegal alien students, as well as refugees, the United States-born children of illegal aliens, and legal immigrant children, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) said on Wednesday.

During a congressional hearing where opponents of President Trump attacked his “America First” immigration agenda, Byrne noted that the burden of the nation’s mass illegal and legal immigration system — where more than 1.5 million are admitted every year — falls on U.S. taxpayers who have no choice but to subsidize the cost. Byrne said:

In 2016, the Pew Research Center estimated that 3.9 million – or 7.3% – of kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States were either here illegally or were the children of at least one parent illegally present in the United States. Can anyone tell me how much we spend on public education for that population of students? It’s around $60 billion.

Byrne said that while the federal government mandates English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for the roughly 9.6 percent of all U.S. students who are considered Limited English Proficiency (LEP), it is states and local residents who have to endure the cost.

{snip}