A staggering new report has once again underscored the crushing financial burden to US taxpayers that is massive unchecked illegal immigration. As illegal aliens continue to pour over the southern border in record numbers, the load is going to get only heavier in 2024.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) on Dec. 19 issued the report, which is “based on newly released data from the 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation.” The findings are deflating. “Our best estimate is that 59 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants, also called the undocumented, use at least one major [welfare] program,” CIS wrote.
Almost everywhere the organization looked, illegal aliens were likely to have greater use of US social welfare programs than American citizens. “Compared to the US-born, illegal-headed households use every program at statistically significant higher rates ... except for SSI [Supplemental Security Income], TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families], and housing,” the paper continued. “It is also important to note that we have no evidence that their use rates reflect cheating or fraud.”
Six Lanes to Taxpayer Money
How is it possible for illegals to receive so many benefits most Americans assume are meant only for legal citizens? CIS counts the ways:
“First, more than half of all illegal immigrant households have one or more US-born children. Second, many states offer Medicaid directly to illegal immigrants ... Third, illegal immigrant children have the same eligibility as citizens for free subsidized school lunch/breakfast and [the Women, Infants and Children program] under federal law. Fourth, six states also offer SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits to illegal immigrants under limited circumstances.
“Fifth, several million illegal immigrants have work authorization, which provides a Social Security number and with it [Earned Income Tax Credit] eligibility ... Sixth, prior research indicates that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants have no education beyond high school and, as a result, a very large share of illegal immigrants have incomes low enough to qualify for welfare.”
Consider all that, and then take another wincing glance at the utter chaos unfolding at the Mexican border. Even big-box media organ CBS News has pointed out the alarming scale of what can only be called a catastrophe.
4,000 Illegal Aliens in One Sector in One Day
“In just five days last week, Border Patrol processed nearly 50,000 migrants who entered the US illegally, with daily apprehensions surpassing 10,000 thrice, up from the 6,400 average last month, according to federal data,” the network reported Dec. 24. “Roughly 1,500 additional migrants are being processed each day at official border crossings under a Biden program powered by a phone app.
(Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
“In Border Patrol's Del Rio [Texas] sector, which includes Eagle Pass, the agency has processed as many as 4,000 migrants in 24 hours in recent days, a record high for the area, internal data show,” CBS detailed. “Illegal border crossings have always happened," Eagle Pass fire chief Manuel Mello said. “Groups of 10, 12 – that was a large group. But now you see 3,000 and 4,000 in one day. I never thought something like this could happen.”
Four thousand foreigners in one day in one location, a Biden administration phone app to whisk them into the nation’s interior, and the ability to tap into welfare programs meant to aid struggling Americans. The illegal alien flood is bucking to rival the decades-long funding of endless wars abroad as the most effective means of bankrupting a once-prosperous nation.
In March, the Federation for American Immigration Reform issued a report stating that illegal immigration costs US taxpayers $151 billion a year. Given the ongoing escalation in the number of illegal aliens entering the country with each passing day during the Biden administration, that number surely has risen significantly over the course of the past year.
It’s Not a Conspiracy Theory
Pro-illegal immigration advocates are quick to dismiss groups like CIS and FAIR as biased organizations spreading disinformation about alien access to welfare. Yet these same voices are openly calling for illegals to have that very access.
The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is a legal group devoted to aiding illegal aliens. It is funded by radical big-money “philanthropies” such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation.
“We need to ensure that everyone in the US has access to high-quality health care, food, and economic assistance, regardless of their race, income, or where they were born,” NILC urged in August 2021. “COVID-19 has exposed the severe inequities that predated the pandemic; our response as a nation can provide a blueprint to create a stronger, healthier country for all.”
The group was touting legislation introduced by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Tony Cardenas (D-CA) to overturn provisions barring newly arrived immigrants from being eligible for Medicaid and other federal welfare programs for five years.
Jayapal specifically included DACA illegal aliens in announcing her bill, which was reintroduced in 2022 and 2023.
Jayapal and Cardenas “led lawmakers today in introducing legislation to remove cruel, xenophobic, and harmful barriers to federal public benefits for immigrants,” a Sept. 10, 2021, release from Jayapal’s congressional office stated. “The LIFT the BAR Act eliminates the current five-year waiting period for access to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This will restore access to critical aid for Green Card holders, DACA recipients, individuals granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), and other lawfully present immigrants.”
Let’s refer back to that CIS laundry list of how illegals become eligible for federal welfare assistance. “[M]ore than half of all illegal immigrant households have one or more US-born children,” item one reads. The DACA Trojan Horse is indeed just that when it comes to illegal aliens and welfare.
This is how a nation is gutted from within. As the scourge of runaway illegal immigration gathers hurricane strength, the already astronomical costs to American citizens will soon turn untenable. Financial collapse will then be inevitable. Is this what the powerful backers of this baleful human floodtide had in mind all along?
