The Compacts of Free Association (COFA) give freedom of migration to the United States for citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. As far as Hawaii is concerned, however, “free” comes with a cost.

This state and the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa are about to get an updated picture of how much financial help is available from the federal government to meet obligations of hosting the migrants under the longstanding compact.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is scheduled by December 2018 to issue another count of migrants who travel under the compacts; it would be the latest of the tallies that are mandated by the agreements every five years.

For its part, Hawaii has ample justification for every dime of federal support it’s received and plainly deserves more help for the support given to its COFA migrant residents — despite an apparent push from the Trump administration to cut the support.

According to an online guide to the compacts published by the University of Hawaii-Manoa Library, the original agreements were established in part as “compensation for the loss of life, health, land, and resources due to the numerous nuclear weapons tests on the Marshall Islands and Bikini and Enewetak Atolls issued by the U.S. from 1946 to 1958.”

Under the compacts, citizens of Micronesia may live and work legally in the U.S. without a visa; they also have access to social and health services.

In return, “the U.S. has sole access and substantial amount of military and veto power over these islands that are are considered of strategic value,” according to the guide.

The original compacts were established by an act of Congress in 1985 and were renewed in 2003. Under the agreement, Hawaii receives an annual allotment of $30 million to offset the costs associated with services to COFA migrants. Additionally, $3 million in discretionary federal money comes with the grant, but that slice is now under threat by this administration, whose budget proposal shows its elimination.

It’s hard to see the rationale for such cuts. The administration acknowledges that some of the discretionary funding has been used to cover job training and other social services. The growing numbers of Micronesians among Hawaii’s homeless should bolster the argument to keep such support to encourage their self-sufficiency.

According to recent state reports, the total fiscal impact of the Micronesian population on the state is about three times what Hawaii receives in federal funds. The largest costs fall under the state Department of Education for public schooling, with the Department of Human Services running up nearly as much in social program assistance.

And if recent statistics maintain their current trajectory, the costs are rising. There were 12,215 COFA migrants in Hawaii in 2008; that jumped to 14,700 in the most recent count, in 2013.

By contrast, Guam’s numbers have fallen from 18,305 to 17,710 over that same period. Although that’s still ahead of Hawaii in COFA population, the migrants remain a growing concern in Hawaii.

The migrants’ contribution includes a disproportionately high rate of enlistment in the armed forces. However, in 1996 federal law excluded migrants from federal public benefits, so the costs were increasingly borne by the state and territorial governments.

Hawaii’s congressional delegation has resolved to keep up the pressure to maintain Hawaii’s funding, at a minimum, and to lobby for an increase, especially if the census shows costs continuing to mount.

The Interior Department census will cost $1.49 million; if that money produces data to bolster Hawaii’s case for federal support, it will be money well spent.