The effect on food and welfare support to the poor in the government shutdown has revealed that the noncitizen and illegal immigrant community has been benefiting from the taxpayer-funded programs more than American citizens — by far.
According to newly analyzed Census Bureau data, nearly half of the immigrant community taps into the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which was suspended in some states due to the shutdown.
An analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies shared with Secrets Monday found that 47% of noncitizen households with children under 6 use the programs. For comparison, 31% of American citizen households use SNAP and WIC.
What’s more, added the center, “non-citizen households account for nearly one in five of all households with young children receiving WIC or SNAP.”
It is the latest evidence that the nation’s estimated 14 million illegal immigrants are costly to the country and not just because of border control expenses. Once in the country, the costs of feeding, clothing, housing, and educating the migrants add up fast.
“The results also are a reminder that once low-income immigrants settle in the country, it is very difficult to prevent their use of the welfare system,” said the center’s report.
“This situation,” added the report, “raises important policy questions, including whether it makes sense to have an immigration system that allows in so many people who turn to taxpayers to support their children?”
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The analysis did not suggest that fraud was at work. WIC, for example, is available to illegal immigrants while SNAP, or welfare, typically isn’t.
But the center’s report highlighted that most of the children in the households included in the census data are American via birthright citizenship, which the Trump administration would like to end. Those children are eligible for both programs.