Heavy Welfare Use by Legal Immigrants

Two new reports from the Center for Immigration Studies show very high rates of welfare use by immigrants. The first, released last week, looked at all immigrant households, legal and illegal, and found that 51 percent accessed one or more welfare programs.

This week we released a second report, looking at the same data but separating out legal and illegal immigrants. While we found that illegal-immigrant households make significant use of welfare, here I want to focus on the far bigger problem of legal immigrants’ welfare use. Three-quarters of all immigrant households using welfare are headed by legal immigrants. Legal immigration is a discretionary policy that is supposed to benefit the country; we can allow in or keep out anyone we want. Yet our current legal-immigration system has produced a flow of immigrants in which a large share cannot support themselves or their children.

To study immigrant welfare use, we used the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. Like other researchers, we identified legal and illegal immigrants based on various questions in the survey. We estimated that 49 percent of households headed by legal immigrants used one or more welfare programs in 2012, compared with 30 percent of households headed by the native-born. Legal immigrants have significantly higher use rates than native-born households overall and for cash programs, food programs, and Medicaid; use of housing programs is about the same as for natives. Among legal-immigrant households with children, the rate of welfare use is an astonishing 72 percent. There is no evidence that these numbers represent fraud; instead, they represent a profound problem with the selection criteria we use to admit legal immigrants.

In addition to the cost to taxpayers, these figures have political implications. The high welfare use of immigrants may help explain, for example, why survey data show strong majorities of voters in immigrant communities that are supportive of big government.

Americans have always rightly sensed there was a problem with immigrants’ welfare use. But it is important to understand that most immigrant (and native) households accessing welfare have at least one worker. In fact, there is a worker present in 85 percent of legal-immigrant households. However, work does not equal self-sufficiency.

The welfare system is explicitly designed to assist low-income workers with children, and this describes many immigrant households. For example, a family consisting of two children and a single parent earning $20,000 a year qualifies for just about every non-cash welfare program in almost every state, including WIC, food stamps, free school lunch, Medicaid, and subsidized or public housing. If their monthly income is low enough for part of the year, they may also access cash programs.

One reason why legal immigrants have such high welfare-use rates is the large fraction of them who have low levels of education. Legal-immigrant households are more than twice as likely to be headed by a person who has not graduated from high school as native households. Welfare use by less-educated immigrants is enormous. We estimate that in 2012, 75 percent of households headed by legal immigrants without a high-school diploma used one or more welfare programs, as did 64 percent of households headed by legal immigrants with only a high-school education.

We also found that even among households headed by people with bachelor’s degrees, those headed by immigrants used welfare at double the rate of natives — 26 percent vs. 13 percent. This may point to other causes of immigrant welfare use, such as culture. Also, the social networks that new immigrants rely on for everything from finding a job to getting an apartment seem to also be very effective at helping immigrants navigate the welfare system.

#share#Although these numbers may seem shockingly high, no one has disputed the accuracy of our first report. The main response, by open-border libertarians, has been that immigrants may use more welfare, but poor immigrants use slightly less welfare than poor natives. This is true, but only for certain programs. The libertarian claim is essentially that immigrants represent “a better class of underclass,” as my colleague Mark Krikorian puts it — not a particularly compelling argument. The fact is that immigrants’ poverty rate is about 50 percent higher than that of natives, and immigrants’ welfare use reflects these poverty rates. (See here for a longer discussion of this and related issues.)

It’s also worth mentioning that refugees and asylum recipients (who have easier access to welfare under the law) do not explain these welfare-use rates. Such humanitarian immigration accounts for only about 13 percent of immigrants, and prior analysis has shown their welfare use to be similar to that of immigrants overall.

All of this means that President George W. Bush was wrong when he argued that all that matters is matching a willing worker with a willing employer. Allowing in large numbers of less-educated legal immigrants has enormous negative implications for taxpayers. Of course, less-educated native workers also use a lot of welfare, but they are already here and they’re already part of our national community. It would make far more sense to draw some of the 30 million less-educated working-age people in the country who are currently not working back into the labor market by reducing immigration and letting wages rise, rather than continuing to allow large-scale unskilled immigration.

Some might argue that we should allow in immigrant workers but “build a wall around the welfare state.” The 1996 welfare reform tried this, and it failed. We have a brief appendix in our first welfare report that explains in detail why this is the case. In short, restrictions often apply to only a modest share of immigrants at any one time; some programs are not restricted; there are numerous exceptions; states often provide welfare with their own money; and some provisions are entirely unenforced.

To give just one example: If new immigrants need financial help, they are supposed to turn to their sponsors, who have signed a legally binding (if seldom enforced) “affidavit of support.” But there’s an “indigent exception” that allows them to get welfare anyway, negating the whole point of making sponsors responsible.

It’s also true that immigrants can receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children, who have access to all welfare programs, including cash and food stamps, like any other U.S. citizen. In fact, otherwise ineligible immigrants can live in public housing if they have just one U.S.-born child. This applies even to the citizen children of illegal aliens — but there are many more children of legal immigrants, making that the bigger part of the welfare issue.

Practically and politically, barring low-income legal immigrants and their children from welfare after they have been allowed into the country is probably not possible. Are we really going to cut off low-income children, disabled immigrants, and the working poor from welfare once they are here? In a country that often makes public policy by heart-rending anecdote, that seems very unlikely.

While high welfare use by legal immigrants is a serious problem, it is a mistake to see it as a moral failing. It merely reflects the intersection of three trends: a modern U.S. economy that offers low wages for the less-educated, an expansive welfare system, and an immigration program that admits large numbers of less-educated people from abroad. (It is not particularly helpful to compare today’s legal immigrants with those who arrived 100 years ago, because there was no real welfare system at that time.)

It is perfectly reasonable to want to scale back the welfare state for everyone. But in the meantime, some 20 to 25 million new legal immigrants will settle in the country in the next two decades under the current system. The overwhelming majority will come because they have a relative here, not because of their skills. If we want to avoid high immigrant welfare use in the future, we will have to move to a highly selective legal-immigration system that admits primarily skilled immigrants who are unlikely to use these programs. If we choose not to make such changes, we must accept without complaint the welfare costs created by the current system.

— Steven Camarota is director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.

70+ Percent of imigrants, legal AND illegal are on some type of government handout- many to the tune of $45,000 a year- yep- you heard that right-

The federal government has a website that teaches immigrants how to sign up for welfare programs once they arrive in the United States.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/government-website-for-immigrants-come-to-america-and-take-advantage-of-our-free-stuff

The Costs Of Illegal Immigration

DARK SIDE of ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION YEARLY COSTS
45,008 illegal aliens from countries on the U.S. list of state-sponsors of terror or from countries that protected terrorist organizations and their members were released into the general public between 2001 and 2005 despite the fact that DHS couldn’t confirm their identity. Ultimate costs are unknown. Remember 9/11? ?

The Border Patrol arrested 39,215 “other-than-Mexicans,” along the Southwest border. In 2004, the number jumped to 65,814. DHS admits they only catch an estimated 1/3 of the border crossers. Ultimate collateral damage costs of the ones not caught are unknown. ?

Some sources say that bin Laden purchased several suitcase nukes from the Chechen rebels in 1996. Allegedly several of these weapons have been forward deployed to the US in preparation for al Qaeda’s next attack on American soil. Ultimate costs are unknown. ?

According to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference, preparations are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps for attacks on American schools that will bring “rivers of blood and staggering body counts.” Ultimate costs are unknown. ?

Illegal aliens are enormously involved identity fraud. Costs are unknown. ?

Illegal aliens are involved in a plethora of other criminal activities including such crimes involving methamphetamine, cocaine, home invasion, auto insurance fraud, life insurance fraud, food stamp fraud, mortgage fraud, auto theft, drug trafficking, prostitution, and counterfeiting documents. Costs are unknown. ?

At the end of 2003, approximately 267,000 illegal aliens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities. $6.8B
Mac Johnson estimates that illegal aliens murder between 1,806 and 2,510 people in the U.S. annually, an average of 2,158 murders. (Representative King states illegal aliens are responsible for 4,380 murders) $8.4 B

According to FBI Estimates on Number of Arrests in 2005 in the United States and applying a straight 5% of population representation, illegal aliens would have committed 704,709 crimes in 2005. Based on an average of $25,000 per crime, the costs would be $17.6 billion. Some estimates have their involvement much higher. $17.6B

Based on a GAO report of 55,322 illegal aliens incarcerated in federal, state, and local facilities during 2003 and extrapolating the average number of offenses out across all 267,000 incarcerated illegal alien criminals results in some 1,288,619 crimes! Based on an average of $25,000 per crime, the costs would be $32.2 billion. Another estimated 240,000 criminal illegal aliens are not incarcerated. $32.2B

Professor David Anderson reports that the net annual burdened costs of crime, in 2006 dollars that would be $1.62 TRILLION. A 5% illegal alien participation would be $81 BILLION. Some studies indicate the participation of illegal aliens is much higher than representation. $81B
80,000 to 100,000 illegal aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes still walk the streets. As previously noted, based on studies, those illegal alien criminal will commit 13 offenses each. Total costs are unknown. ?

An estimated 2,258,550 pounds of cocaine made it through the southern border with an estimated street value conservatively estimated $72.2 BILLION. Resulting costs of the associated crime is unknown. Assume 50% is paid for through crime. $36.1B

There are currently over 400,000 unaccounted for illegal alien criminals with outstanding deportation orders. Those are just the ones apprehended. At least one fourth of these are hard core criminals. Resulting costs are unknown. ?
Researcher Deborah Schurman-Kauflin Ph.D. of the Violent Crimes Institute, reports that the illegal alien population includes 240,000 sex offenders – a “conservative estimate.” Based on studies, they will commit 130,909 sex crimes annually. Using $50,000 as the average total economic impact, resulting costs are: $6.5B

63% of the sexual crimes, 82,473 victims, were committed by previously deported perverts who returned to commit the crime. Using $50,000 as the average total economic impact, this would be $4.1 BILLION - more than the cost of a proper border fence along the southern border. . $4.1B

Operation Predator resulted in 6,085 child predator arrests. Some pedophile statistics report that each pedophile molests average of 148 children. If so, that could be as many as 900,580 victims. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

Gangs Or Us estimates that MS-13 has over 15,000 members and associates in at least 115 different cliques in 33 states, and these numbers are continually increasing. .Resulting costs are unknown. ?

In one report, mostly illegal alien Hispanics were involved in 25% of the fatal traffic accidents, an astounding 5 times as much participation as representation. In those accidents, 75% of the drivers had no auto insurance, nearly all of the vehicles driven by migrants were registered to other drivers, and 93% of the vehicles had false out-of-state tags. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

Illegal aliens are often involved in DWIs at a rate that is 3-6 times greater than their representation in the population. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

At a 5% representation, illegal aliens are responsible for 844 alcohol related fatalities. Data suggests their participation is actually far higher. (Rep.King states that illegal aliens were responsible for 4,745 alcohol related fatalities. If so, that would 5.6 times as many deaths as representation.) Resulting costs are unknown. ?

Based on NHTSA data and a 5% participation rate, illegal are responsible for 309,050 accidents, 2,132 deaths, 139,400 injuries, and a cost of $11.5 billion. Data suggest their involvement is much higher, maybe 3-5 times higher. $11.5B

Half of all children born to Hispanic Americans in 2002 were illegitimate, twice the rate for American whites and 42 percent higher than the overall American rate. Rates are suspected of being even higher for Hispanic illegal aliens. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

There are an estimated 5.1 million ESL students in the USA. If 90% of the ESL students are children of illegal aliens then the education costs for children of illegal aliens is about $34.5 billion per year. $34.5B

Many illegal aliens are carrying horrific third world diseases. In the 40 years prior to 2002, there were only 900 total cases of leprosy in the US. In the following three years there have been 9,000 cases. TB is epidemic in many illegal alien communities and a new Multiple-Drug-Resistant (MDR) TB is spreading. Each person infected with TB will infect 10 others. Treating a single case of MDR TB costs between $250,000 and $1,200,000 per person. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

Between March 2000 and March 2005, only 9 percent of the net increase in jobs for adults went to people born in the US but natives accounted for 61 percent of the net increase in the overall size of the 18- to 64-year-old population. The jobs were taken mostly by illegal aliens, displacing native born Americans. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

The National Academy of Science reported that from 1980 to 1995 there was a 44% of the decline in the real wages of high school dropouts as a result of immigration. This affects Black and Hispanics Americans the greatest and is a great contributor to the high unemployment rate in this segment of the population. Resulting costs are unknown. ?

Harvard Professor George Borjas has reported that illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars in 2005. $133B

The Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns states we are losing $35 billion a year in income tax collections from jobs that are now off the books. $35B

National Academy of Sciences study estimated that immigration’s net benefit to the American economy is only $10 billion. This item is included to illustrate one of the very few real economic benefits of tolerating illegal aliens. Most of the other benefits of illegal aliens “doing the work that Americans won’t” at lower wages goes into the pockets of their employers. -$10B

A Rice University study calculated that in 2006 the net annual cost of legal and illegal immigration will add up to $108 billion. Illegal immigration is about half the total. $54B

The population of the USA recently crossed the 300,000,000. At the present growth rate, it will hit 400 million as early as 2029 and about 500 million in 2050. And if things don’t change real fast, maybe even a Billion by 2075. Additional infrastructure costs will be in the TRILLIONS. ?

Immigration will account for 96 percent of the future increase in the school-age population over the next 50 years. Cost to the infrastructure is unknown. ?

A recent report notes that illegals sent and estimated $45 Billion south in 2006, which was up from an estimated $30 Billion in 2004. That money leaving the economy does not produce secondary jobs here.

Using a 2:1 money multiplier, that is $90 billion removed from the American economy. $90B

A Census Bureau study estimates that households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government; costs at the state and local level are also significant. The study also finds that if illegal aliens were given amnesty, the fiscal deficit at the federal level would grow by nearly $29 billion. $10-29B

Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post states “The Senates embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, $12.6B

While some of the costs summarized above are subsets, e.g. cost of the murders as part of the cost of crime, as you can see the economic costs of tolerating illegal immigration is quite considerable. You are paying for it in terms of higher taxes, insurance premiums, et cetera. Some estimates place the net costs of each illegal alien in the country at $50,000 – $100,000. (FYI: 12,000,000 X $50,000 = $600,000,000,000) When the all the indirect costs are factored in, it is probably even higher. In any case, it is a cost that YOU are paying for.

Even saving ten cents on a head of lettuce, how much lettuce would that buy?

Regardless,

What price do you put on each American who has been molested, raped, killed, or murdered by an illegal alien?

http://www.usillegalaliens.com/the_costs_of_illegal_immigration.html

http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_crime_summary.html

In recent Testimony of District Attorney John M. Morganelli before the House Subcommittee on immigration, Border, Security and Claims he stated:

“Unfortunately, the majority of illegal aliens who are here are engaged in criminal activity. Identity theft, use of fraudulent social security numbers and green cards, tax evasion, driving without licenses represent some of the crimes that are engaged in by the majority of illegal aliens on a daily basis merely to maintain and hide their illegal status.
In addition, violent crime and drug distribution and possession is also prevalent among illegal aliens. Over 25% of today’s federal prison population are illegal aliens. In some areas of the country, 12% of felonies, 25% of burglaries and 34% of thefts are committed by illegal aliens.”

•In Los Angeles, 95% of some 1,500 outstanding warrants for homicides are for illegal aliens. About 67% of the 17,000 outstanding fugitive felony warrants are for illegal aliens.
•There are currently over 400,000 unaccounted for illegal alien criminals with outstanding deportation orders. At least one fourth of these are hard core criminals.
•80,000 to 100,000 illegal aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes are walking the streets. Based on studies they will commit an average of 13 serious crimes per perpetrator.
•Illegal aliens are involved in criminal activities at a rate that is 2-5 times their representative proportion of the population.
•In 1980, our Federal and state facilities held fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens but at the end of 2003, approximately 267,000 illegal aliens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities at a cost of about $6.8 billion per year.
•At least 4.5 million pounds of cocaine with a street value of at least $72 billion is smuggled across the southern border every year. ..
•56% of illegal aliens charged with a reentry offense had previously been convicted on at least 5 prior occasions.
•Illegal aliens charged with unlawful reentry had the most extensive criminal histories. 90% had been previously arrested. Of those with a prior arrest, 50% had been arrested for violent or drug-related felonies.
•Illegal aliens commit between 700,000 to 1,289,000 or more crimes per year.
•Illegal aliens commit at least 2,158 murders each year – a number that represents three times greater participation than their proportion of the population.
•Illegal alien sexual predators commit an estimated 130,909 sexual crimes each year.
•There may be as many as 240,000 illegal alien sex offenders circulating throughout America. Based on studies, they will commit an average of 8 sex crimes per perpetrator before being caught.
•Nearly 63% of illegal alien sex offenders had been deported on another offense prior to committing the sex crime.
•Only 2% of the illegal alien sex offenders in one study had no history of criminal behavior, beyond crossing the border illegally.
•In Operation Predator, ICE arrested and deported 6,085 illegal alien pedophiles. Some studies suggest each pedophile molests average of 148 children. If so, that could be as many as 900,580 victims.
•Nobody knows how big the Sex Slave problem is but it is enormous.
•The very brutal MS-13 gang has over 15,000 members and associates in at least 115 different cliques in 33 states.
•The overall financial impact of illegal alien crimes is estimated at between $14.4 and $81 billion or more per year. Factor in the crime as a result of the cocaine and other drugs being smuggled in and the number may reach $150 billion per year.

Where does Rubio come off berating Trump for citing FACTS?

[[Congressman Steve King (R-IA) estimates that illegal alien drunk drivers kill 13 Americans every day — that’s a death toll of 4,745 per year.[4]

The 23 percent criminal traffic offenders figure is only part of the overall picture. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, another 23 percent, more than 43,000 illegal aliens, were convicted of drug offenses. The violent crime category of assault, robbery, sexual assault, and family offenses comes to 12 percent. The non-violent crime grouping of larceny, fraud, and burglary totaled seven percent, and on the list goes — equaling 100 percent of illegal aliens who have been through the criminal justice system and inflicted thousands to millions in cost per alien on the system, for issues having nothing to do with their illegal entry into the country]]

http://www.constitutionparty.com/illegal-alien-crime-and-violence-by-the-numbers-were-all-victims/

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