Did New York Tax payers money provide for illegal immigrants?

1. The headline numbers: billions committed and billions spent

New York State’s enacted budget and financial plans show a $4.3 billion commitment for emergency spending related to people seeking asylum statewide between SFY 2022‑23 and SFY 2026‑27, while the State estimated direct funding to New York City at about $3.25 billion of that sum, of which only a portion had been received as advances by mid‑2025 ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. City-level outlays and the shelter crisis that drove them

New York City reported large shelter and service expenditures tied to the asylum-seeker influx — the city recorded multi‑billion dollar fiscal-year expenditures across FY2023–FY2025 and continued high costs into FY2026, driven largely by sheltering households and overnight per‑diem rates in an emergency response set up quickly by city agencies ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. Reimbursements, outstanding claims, and fiscal accounting caveats

The city has received some state advances (about $1.25 billion reported by the city’s OMB and $1.26 billion reported by the Comptroller as of July 31, 2025) but also reports nearly $2 billion outstanding to reach budgeted state reimbursements for FY2023–FY2026 — meaning taxpayers ultimately shoulder net costs that depend on future drawdowns, accounting changes, and final reconciliations ^{[2] [3]}.

4. Who gets counted as a recipient: asylum seekers, undocumented, and program specifics

Reporting and fact‑checks note that many official budget line items describe “migrant” or “asylum seeker” services; uses of terms like “illegal immigrants” in political messaging have been challenged as imprecise because seeking asylum or having temporary protected status is not, by itself, a criminal act — the budget includes flexible funding for migrants but the labels used in public debate often conflate distinct legal categories ^{[5] [1]}.

5. Counterpoint — undocumented people also contribute taxes and received pandemic relief from state coffers

Analyses from tax and labor research groups document that undocumented New Yorkers pay substantial state and local taxes (ITEP estimated undocumented immigrants paid about $3.1 billion in state and local taxes in New York in 2024), and New York in 2024 committed $2.1 billion in state funds to cover pandemic aid for excluded workers — complicating narratives that depict only outflows from taxpayers to non‑payers ^{[4] [6]}.

6. Political framing, watchdog claims, and media tallies

Local and national political actors and watchdogs have amplified different totals — TV investigative pieces and other outlets have cited multi‑billion cumulative figures for “taxpayer money spent” on undocumented immigrants in the city, while congressional critics and think tanks have used or amplified specific program dollar figures to argue policy failures or misallocation; these actors have incentives to emphasize either cost or burden, and fact‑checks point out where terminology and program definitions are being stretched ^{[7] [8] [5]}.

7. Bottom line and limits of available reporting

The factual record in state and city budget documents and fiscal trackers shows definitive taxpayer funding for migrant and asylum‑seeker services in New York — including state appropriations and city expenditures — but the net fiscal picture depends on reimbursements, how recipients are legally classified, and competing analyses showing undocumented workers also pay taxes; reporting sources used here document commitments, receipts, and tax‑contribution estimates but do not fully reconcile long‑run net fiscal impacts ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.