By Paul Bedard |
Washington Examiner
A majority of “non-citizens,” including those with legal
green card rights, are tapping into welfare programs set up to help poor and
ailing Americans, a Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump’s
concern about immigrants costing the nation.
In a new analysis of the latest numbers, from 2014, 63
percent of non-citizens are using a welfare program, and it grows to 70
percent for those here 10 years or more, confirming another concern that once
immigrants tap into welfare, they don’t get off it.
The Center for Immigration Studies said in its report that the
numbers give support for Trump’s plan to cut non-citizens off welfare from the
“public charge” if they want a green card that allows them to legally work in
the United States.
“The Trump administration has proposed new ‘public
charge’ rules making it harder for prospective immigrants to qualify for lawful
permanent residence -- green cards -- if they use or are likely to use U.S.
welfare programs,” said CIS.
“Concern over immigrant welfare use is
justified, as households headed by non-citizens use means-tested welfare at
high rates."
Non-citizens in the data include illegal
immigrants, long-term temporary visitors like guest workers, and permanent
residents who have not naturalized. While barriers to welfare use exist for
these groups, it has not prevented them from making extensive use of the
welfare system, often receiving benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children,”
added the Washington-based immigration think tank.
The numbers are huge. The report said that
there are 4,684,784 million non-citizen households receiving welfare.
And nearly all, 4,370,385, have at least one worker in
the house.
In their report, Steven A. Camarota, the director of
research, and Karen Zeigler, a demographer at the Center, said that in census
data, about half of those are in the United States illegally.
Their key findings in the analysis:
- In
2014, 63 percent of households headed by a non-citizen reported that they
used at least one welfare program, compared to 35 percent of native-headed
households.
- Welfare
use drops to 58 percent for non-citizen households and 30 percent for
native households if cash payments from the Earned Income Tax Credit
are not counted as welfare. EITC recipients pay no federal income tax. Like
other welfare, the EITC is a means-tested, anti-poverty program, but
unlike other programs one has to work to receive it.
- Compared
to native households, non-citizen households have much higher use of
food programs (45 percent vs. 21 percent for natives) and Medicaid (50 percent
vs. 23 percent for natives).
- Including
the EITC, 31 percent of non-citizen-headed households receive cash welfare,
compared to 19 percent of native households. If the EITC is not included,
then cash receipt by non-citizen households is slightly lower than natives
(6 percent vs. 8 percent).
- While most new legal immigrants (green card
holders) are barred from most welfare programs, as are illegal immigrants
and temporary visitors,
these provisions have only a modest impact on non-citizen household use
rates because:
1) most legal immigrants
have been in the country long enough to qualify;
2) the bar does not apply to all programs, nor
does it always apply to non-citizen children;
3) some states provide
welfare to new immigrants on their own; and, most importantly,
4) non-citizens (including
illegal immigrants) can receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children
who are awarded U.S. citizenship and full welfare eligibility at birth.
_______________________
RELATED
STORY
Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant
Households Are on Welfare
By John
Binder | Breitbart News
More than 7-in-10 households headed by
immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new
study reveals.
The latest Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)
finds that about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use
one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California — the
number one immigrant-receiving state in the U.S.
Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of
households headed by native-born Americans use welfare in California. All
four states with the largest foreign-born populations, including California,
have extremely high use of welfare by immigrant households.
In Texas, for
example, nearly 70 percent of households headed by immigrants use taxpayer-funded
welfare. Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of native-born households in
Texas are on welfare.
In New York and Florida, a majority of
households headed by immigrants and noncitizens are on welfare.
Overall, about 63 percent of immigrant households use welfare while only 35
percent of native-born households use welfare.
President Trump’s administration is looking to soon
implement a policy that protects American taxpayers’ dollars from
funding the mass importation of welfare-dependent foreign nationals by enforcing
a “public charge” rule whereby legal immigrants would be less likely to
secure a permanent residency in the U.S. if they have used any forms of welfare
in the past, including using Obamacare, food stamps, and public housing.
The immigration controls would be a boon for American
taxpayers in the form of an annual $57.4
billion tax cut — the amount taxpayers spend every year on paying
for the welfare, crime, and schooling costs of the country’s mass importation
of 1.5 million new, mostly low-skilled legal immigrants.
As Breitbart News reported, the
majority of the more than 1.5 million foreign nationals entering the country
every year use about 57
percent more food stamps than the average native-born American
household.
Overall, immigrant households consume 33 percent more cash
welfare than American citizen households and 44 percent more in Medicaid
dollars.
This straining of public services by a booming 44
million foreign-born population translates to the average immigrant
household costing American taxpayers $6,234 in
federal welfare.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart
News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
