Half of Legal Immigrants on Welfare

Nearly one out of every two households headed by a legal immigrant to the United States in on welfare, according to a study released Thursday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The report is a follow-up to a study out last week by the Washington-based think tank indicating that 51 percent of all immigrant households — both legal and illegal — are on welfare. Legal immigrant households account for three quarters of all immigrant households using at least one welfare program.

“We need to take a good, hard look at the number of people we are admitting to this country and the fact that they are not going to be self-sufficient,” Jesse Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

The study indicates that 49 percent of households headed by legal immigrants used one or more federal welfare programs in 2012, compared with 30 percent of households headed by native-born Americans. Immigrants had a higher rate of use of cash programs (14 percent vs. 10 percent), food programs (36 percent vs. 22 percent) and Medicaid (39 percent vs. 23 percent). Both groups benefitted from housing assistance at similar rates.

Vaughan disputed the argument of immigration supporters that newcomers represent a net gain to the economy. While immigration could be a plus, she said, “The system we have now is not producing that. What we are doing now, unfortunately, is supporting a lot of dependency on welfare programs.”

The reason, Vaughan said, is that current policy results in disproportionate immigration by low-education, low-skilled foreigners.

“Not only is that putting Americans out of work, but it is increasing dependency and cost of maintaining these generous welfare programs that the United States has and that are not going away,” she said.

Immigrants with fewer skills and lower levels of education exacerbate the drain on welfare programs because they often sponsor family members, who also come to the United States with fewer skills and less education.

Vaughan said immigrants with fewer skills and lower levels of education exacerbate the drain on welfare programs because those immigrants often sponsor family members, who also come to the United States with fewer skills and less education.

“We’re perpetuating this importation of dependency,” she said.

Advocates of loosening immigration restrictions have attacked the study, arguing that it uses flawed methodology.

Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute, responded to last week’s Center for Immigration Studies report by arguing that using the head of household as the measuring point exaggerates immigrant welfare use: It fails to count U.S. citizens who often live in such households and benefit from welfare programs. U.S.-born children, for instance, can make a low-income household eligible for food stamps.

Nowrasteh wrote that the dollar value of welfare use by native-born Americans tends to be higher than for immigrants. He also criticized the center for not including Medicare and Social Security — the two largest entitlement programs — in its analysis. The center has responded that it included only means-tested programs, based on income, as a more accurate description of welfare.

Other highlights of the study released Thursday include:

• Of legal immigrant households with children, 72 percent receive at least one welfare program, compared to 52 percent of native households.
• An estimated 62 percent of  households headed by an illegal immigrant used at least one welfare program in 2012, compared to 30 percent of native households.
• Households headed by immigrants illegally in the country have higher use rates than native households overall and for food programs (57 percent vs. 22 percent) and Medicaid (51 percent vs. 23 percent). Use of cash programs by illegal immigrants is lower than use by natives (5 percent vs. 10 percent), as is use of housing programs (4 percent vs. 6 percent).
• Of illegal immigrant households with children, 87 percent benefit from one or more welfare programs, compared to 52 percent of native households.
• There is a worker present in 85 percent of legal immigrant-headed households and 95 percent of illegal immigrant-headed households. But these workers are often less-educated and earn low wages, and are thus eligible for welfare.
• Education level plays a larger role in explaining welfare use than legal status. The most extensive use of welfare is by less-educated immigrants who are in the country legally. Of households headed by legal immigrants without a high school diploma, 75 percent use one or more welfare programs, as do 64 percent of households headed by legal immigrants with only a high school education.
• The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants have modest levels of education, which explains the high use of welfare associated with less-educated legal immigrants. The center concludes that legalization likely would increase welfare costs, particularly for cash and housing programs.