A national police organization has expressed frustration that law enforcement agencies in several Democratic-run cities and states are struggling with staffing and budget shortages while local politicians allocate billions of dollars to support illegal immigrants.
According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, New York City was projected to spend over $8.9 billion on housing and assistance for illegal immigrants across 2024 and 2025. Similarly, the Illinois Policy Institute estimated that Illinois has spent more than $2.5 billion on care for illegal immigrants since 2021, with most of those expenses tied to healthcare.
In Chicago alone, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the city spent about $255 million in 2022 and 2023 on housing, food, clothing, and other care for illegal immigrants.
During a City Council meeting in December 2024, one resident voiced anger over these expenditures, urging officials to halt free services for illegal immigrants. “Let’s start with cutting off illegals getting free everything — free housing, free schooling, free food,” the woman said to Mayor Brandon Johnson. “That’ll save us a lot of money.”
National Police Association spokeswoman Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith told Fox News Digital that officers find these funding priorities “very frustrating,” especially when their departments face serious shortages. Using Chicago as an example, she noted that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is down nearly 1,000 officers. According to ABC 7, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said city administrators have asked him to identify $98 million in potential budget cuts.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Snelling said. “We’re going in the right direction. It’s going to take some time, and we just have to make sure that our department is properly staffed to get that done.”
Smith argued that the billions currently directed toward illegal immigrant support should instead be invested in police training and recruitment programs to help cities manage rising crime.
“They are tired of supporting illegal aliens,” Smith said. “And they are tired of hearing their politicians demonize law enforcement and ignore their needs. Our system was not designed to support millions of people from other countries, especially when so many U.S. citizens are in need of assistance.”
