Illegals Abandoning Welfare Over Deportation Fears

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities (and signed a now-blocked executive order aiming to do as much) – but when it comes to illegals themselves receiving government benefits, he hasn’t signed anything into law prohibiting that.

But despite that fact, some illegals (and reportedly even some legal immigrants) have been unrolling themselves from government benefits over fears it’ll make them easier to locate and deport. Hilariously, we know this because the center-left magazine Politico reported on the phenomenon as if it was a bad thing (I’m not referring to any legal immigrants affected).

According to their report: “Immigrants are turning down government help to buy infant formula and healthy food for their young children because they’re afraid the Trump administration could bar them from getting a green card if they take federal aid. Local health providers say they’ve received panicked phone calls from both documented and undocumented immigrant families demanding to be dropped from the rolls of WIC, a federal nutrition program aimed at pregnant women and children, after news reports that the White House is potentially planning to deny legal status to immigrants who’ve used public benefits. Agencies in at least 18 states say they’ve seen drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment, and they attribute the change largely to fears about the immigration policy.

While Politico uses the term “immigrants,” bear in mind that liberals like those at Politico use the term “immigrant” and “illegal immigrant” interchangeably.

The Trump Administration has previously proposed a rule to deny legal status to illegals on welfare and has floated the idea of financial penalties for recent immigrants who remain dependent on the government for an extended period of time. Given the immense costs of both illegal and legal low-skilled immigration, that’s simply common sense. The total cost of illegal immigration is $113 billion a year at the federal, state, and local level, with the vast majority of the costs ($84 billion) placed upon state and local governments.

Illegal immigrants are asking to be dropped from welfare over deportation fears, while some legal immigrants wrongly believe their legal status will be in jeopardy because of their welfare usage. Both fears are completely unfounded – and entirely the result of fear-mongering, particularly from liberals. Whoever thought the taxpayer would get to save money from Trump Derangement Syndrome?

Unfortunately, most liberals are doing everything they can to encourage even more illegal immigration. Just last month, Nancy Pelosi basically admitted to a crowd in El Paso, Texas, that she wants open borders. She said that voters who “have a completely positive view” of immigrants should side with her party in the hopes of giving “leverage” to people who enter the country illegally.

What she really wants is for illegal immigrants to give leverage to Democrats. One way that illegals can help Democrats win elections, even without illegal immigrant voting, is due to their representation in the census. Pelosi’s home state of California would lose four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and therefore four votes in the Electoral College if only citizens were counted in the decennial national census.

With the goal of gaining and maintaining political power, Democrats are once again putting the interests of themselves over those of the American public.

By Matt

Matt is the co-founder of Unbiased America and a freelance writer specializing in economics and politics. He’s been published... More about Matt

Mentioned in this article: