People often ask how illegal immigrants can afford to pay for their journeys. Much of the funding comes from predictable sources: Relatives in the United States may send the money, the migrant may borrow it or even indenture himself to smuggling gangs and work off the debt once here.

But a lot of the money comes from the American taxpayer.

Start with the United Nations. The United States gave all the U.N. agencies $18 billion in 2022. The U.N. does many different things with that money, but one thing is to help wannabe border-jumpers actually make it to the border.

An investigation by the Center for Immigration Studies has revealed that U.N. agencies have budgeted $372 million for 2024 to help 624,000 migrants heading north to cross illegally into the U.S. These migrants “in transit” will be supported with money, transportation, food, shelter, legal advice and more to ensure they’re able to get to the Rio Grande.

Once the illegal immigrants cross the border, they turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, which is obviously totally funded by our taxes. Law enforcement is an essential function of government, and few people begrudge the taxes we have to pay for that protection.

But now, the taxpayer-funded Border Patrol is no longer doing much law enforcement — it’s been turned into a vast Welcome Wagon. Since President Biden took office, more than 3 million undocumented immigrants have been “processed” by the Border Patrol and released into the United States.

Once you’ve paid to have the immigrants “processed” and released, they then have to make their way to the relatives or friends they’re going to join. While much of the money for the bus or plane tickets comes from the immigrants’ families or a genuine charity, taxpayers provide some of it whether you like it or not.

For one group of immigrants, all the transportation costs are borne by the taxpayer. Unaccompanied minors (who frequently are neither minors nor really unaccompanied) have totaled nearly half a million on Biden’s watch, and they are delivered to their “sponsors” (often their undocumented parents who paid to have them smuggled) by the U.S. government.

You help pay for adult undocumented immigrants to get to their destinations, too. The Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which was started 40 years ago to give money to non-profit groups to help homeless veterans and others. This program has a new mission — assisting undocumented border-crossers with transportation and basic needs. In 2023, $425 million in your money was budgeted for that task.

Whether the money comes directly from the federal treasury or is directed through the U.N. or various non-profit groups, your tax money is helping underwrite the border crisis. There’s a long list of things that need to be done to regain control after three years of chaos, but high up on that list is to stop paying to make it worse.

Mark Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington/InsideSources