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ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: GAO FINDS WELFARE PROBLEM

Monday, November 24, 1997
Federal welfare programs paid “[m]ore than $1 billion” in
benefits in 1995 to “illegal immigrant families because some of
their children are U.S. citizens, according to” a General
Accounting Office report released last week. The GAO analysis,
commissioned by Congress “as part of last year’s welfare
overhaul,” said federal assistance to the American children of
illegal immigrants “also helps support the child’s family,
raising concerns about the use of public assistance by those
illegally in the United States.” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the
cosponsor of legislation “that would require children to have at
least one citizen or legal resident parent in order to be granted
citizenship upon birth,” said, “It’s obvious that there’s a huge
loophole in immigration law.” The GAO report concluded that
“[p]ayments to U.S. citizen children of illegal immigrants
accounted for about three percent, or $700 million, of all” AFDC
payments made in FY 1995, “up from two percent — or $479 million
— in 1992,” the AP/Washington Post reports. In addition, the
GAO noted that “[m]ost AFDC recipients also receive Medicaid,
which on average provides more than $1,000 per child each year
for health care expenses” (11/23).

LOGICAL CONCLUSION
Mike Nadel, the author of the GAO study, said that because
the “AFDC benefit remained steady ... the rapid rise in payments
must be a result of a flood of illegal immigrant parents applying
for such benefits.” The GAO concluded that the “vast majority of
illegal immigrants receiving welfare benefits on behalf of their
U.S.-born children live in California, Texas and Arizona”

(O’Connell, Scripps Howard/Washington Times, 11/23). Health and
Human Services Department Inspector General June Gibbs Brown said
the Clinton administration “clearly supports all federal efforts
to deter illegal immigration.” However, she said “our mission
also requires us to improve the health and economic self-
sufficiency of all citizens ... including the citizen children of
immigrant parents” (AP/Washington Post, 11/23).