The incoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking aim at the burden illegal immigration places on U.S. taxpayers.
The government cost-cutting initiative, co-led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, took to X on Monday to highlight the price tag of illegal immigration compared to the cost of World War I and an array of major American projects, adjusting for inflation.
Illegal immigration: $150.7 billion
In the post, DOGE said illegal immigration cost U.S. taxpayers $150.7 billion in 2023 alone.
The agency cited figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which arrived at the number by adding the total federal, state and local expenditures on illegal immigration and subtracting the total tax contributions made by illegal immigrants.
World War I: $334 billion
DOGE pointed to a Norwich University study on the cost of U.S. wars in today’s dollars, which indicates America spent $334 billion on World War I when adjusting for inflation. That means American taxpayers spent nearly half the cost of that war in a single year on illegal immigration in 2023.
Apollo Space Program: $257 billion
According to The Planetary Society, cited by DOGE, NASA’s Project Apollo — the space program that put the first American astronauts on the moon — cost the U.S. $25.8 billion from 1960 to 1973. In today’s dollars, that is $257 billion.
Manhattan Project: $30 billion
The Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb and helped America win World War II, cost U.S. taxpayers $30 billion over four years, in 2023 dollars. DOGE pointed to a study citing the National Park Service as the source for the dollar amount.
Panama Canal: $15.2 billion
The U.S. government spent $500 million excavating the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914. That amounts to $15.2 billion in 2023 dollars, according to a history of the project cited by DOGE.
Hoover Dam: $1 billion
The federal government spent $49 million to build the Hoover Dam, which was finished in 1935 after five years of construction. When accounting for inflation, that puts the cost at $1 billion, according to the National Archives.
