In the past on The Political Insider, we’ve covered the immense cost the illegal immigration population imposes on the American economy. The estimated fiscal cost of illegal immigration in terms of welfare use, administration of justice, education, and other forms of public assistance, is nearly $120 billion a year. So costly is illegal immigration, that even if only welfare was refused to them, the taxpayer would save enough money every year to fund Trump’s border wall.
It’s no surprise that illegals are disproportionately relying on public services because they’re generally low skilled immigrants. But what of regular immigrants, the flow of which we can control to ensure that only those who won’t burden the system are allowed in? It certainly wouldn’t be a radical policy, given that it’s what nearly every other first world nation does (especially the Scandinavian nations, which are notorious for their general welfare states).
Surprisingly, welfare use is sky high among legal-immigrant households too.
According to USA Today:
About 51% of immigrant-led households receive at least one kind of welfare benefit, including Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches and housing assistance, compared to 30% for native-led households, according to the report from the Center for Immigration
Additionally:
- The majority of immigrants using welfare come from Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The use of welfare is lower for immigrants from East Asia (32%), Europe (26%) and South Asia (17%).
- Immigrants who have been in the U.S. more than 20 years use welfare less often, but their rates remain higher than native-born households.
Ironically, it’s low-skilled legal immigrants that’ll find it easier to access public assistance than their illegal count-parts.
President Trump has called for a “merit-based” immigration system to replace our current system. According to an analysis of his plan, “the plan would cut the number of legal immigrants by up to 44% or half a million immigrants annually—the largest policy-driven legal immigration cut since the 1920s.
Compared to current law, it would exclude nearly 22 million people from the opportunity to immigrate legally to the United States over the next five decades.”
Does America need to fix its broken immigration system? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
