The Budget Office is calculating the cost of failed asylum claims by illegal immigrants. It seeks to update 2018 figures that put expenses at up to $33,700 per person depending on lengthy appeals.

“I am requesting the total cost to the Immigration and Refugee Board of asylum claimants, the average cost per asylum claimant for each step in which the Board is involved as well as any projections available on the future cost to the organization related to asylum claimants,” Budget Officer Yves Giroux wrote in a letter to the Department of Immigration.

Giroux also sought data on “the maximum number of appeals one asylum claimant can file and the average number of appeals per asylum claimant.” Responses are due May 3 for publication later this summer, he said.