Leftists like to claim that virtually no benefit money is given to noncitizens. A recent analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) argues that this is false. Households headed by noncitizens are not only receiving government benefits, but they are receiving them at higher rates than citizen households.
Steven Camarota, director of research for CIS, recently released Welfare Use by Non-Citizens Across States in the U.S. This study is a devastating statement of how our country attracts people and then funds them to stay here.
The pivotal paragraph is this: “Of households headed by non-citizens, 47 percent use one or more traditional welfare programs, 19 percentage points higher than the 28 percent for U.S.-born households. The non-citizen rate rises to 57 percent when eligibility for the EITC or ACTC is added, compared to 34 percent for the U.S.-born.”
The programs under discussion are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; Supplemental Security Income; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children; free school meals; Medicaid; and Section 8 housing. If there is a worker in the household, then it can additionally receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), which are refundable tax credits beyond any taxes paid.
Noncitizens considered include both legal permanent residents and illegal immigrants. In an interview, Camarota said that children are the anchor for benefits for illegal immigrants and for those permanent residents who have not been here long enough to qualify for programs. Illegal immigrants alone have 4.5 million U.S. born children under 18 years old. As U.S. citizens, these dependent children have full welfare eligibility from birth.
The two principal means of noncitizens receiving benefits are DACA and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs. About 800,000 people have been approved for DACA since 2012. Approved DACA participants can live, study, and work in the U.S. They can receive a Social Security number and driver’s license. They receive benefits even though they are noncitizens.
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While most new legal immigrants and all illegal immigrants are barred from using most programs, these restrictions do not stop a large fraction of noncitizens from accessing programs. Camarota points out, “restrictions on welfare eligibility have a modest impact on noncitizen overall use rates primarily because: 1) noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children; 2) some states provide welfare to ineligible immigrants on their own; and 3) most legal immigrants have lived here long enough to qualify for welfare.”
Camarota stated that each state sets its own criteria, even though most funds are provided by the federal government. New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois have the most lenient requirements for benefits. Florida and several other red states have the most restrictive benefit requirements.
The bigger program allowing noncitizens is TPS. Camarota said that presidents have used the program to various degrees, but “the Biden administration used it on steroids.”
TPS is a U.S. humanitarian immigration program that allows foreign nationals already inside the country to stay and work legally if conditions in their home nations become too dangerous for them to return. The people in the program can legally work and not be removed as long as the designation exists. Camarota said that between 10-11 million people have been provided with Social Security numbers under the program since it was established in 1990.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that President Donald Trump or his successors can remove people’s TPS designation when a country of origin is determined not to be dangerous.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of CIS, has argued that the Biden border crisis could be replicated unless Congress acts. TPS needs to be reformed, or the next Democrat in the White House will have the opportunity to open the floodgates once again to allow quasi-legal individuals into the country—and provide them with extensive taxpayer-funded benefits.
The time has come to unify all these benefits in one central place. There are essentially three types of benefits people are receiving: food, housing, and medical care. Applicants should be processed through a single database, which could be tied to IRS and Immigration databases. The information in said database would be used to determine who is eligible for what benefits, based on requirements established by Congress.
This would save taxpayer money on duplicative departmental staffing, and it would help minimize the possibility of fraud. Although CIS did not directly address the issue of fraud in these programs, it is a subject that also deserves scrutiny.
It is stunning how many noncitizens and illegal immigrants are foraging through our bureaucracy and living off the hard work of American taxpayers. It is no wonder we have such a large national debt.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
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