President Donald Trump signing an executive order. Credit: The White House via Wikimedia Commons
Federal departments and agencies are directed to identify and end all financial benefits received by undocumented immigrants under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday. The order was issued to “ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration,” according to a White House fact sheet.
People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care. Children are entitled to a free K-12 public education regardless of immigration status under a 1982 Supreme Court ruling, the Associated Press reported.
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The fact sheet listed several examples of benefits that undocumented immigrants receive:
- Under current welfare laws, specifically the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, undocumented immigrants generally are barred from welfare programs. But if they’re granted parole, they are classified as “qualified aliens” and become eligible for various welfare programs on a sliding scale, with full eligibility granted within five years.
- According to the Center for Immigration Studies, providing welfare to one million undocumented immigrants could cost American taxpayers an additional $3 billion annually.
- The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee estimated that taxpayers could pay as much as $451 billion to care for undocumented immigrants and “gotaways” who have entered the United States unlawfully since January 2021.
- The Federation for American Immigration Reform calculated that American taxpayers spend at least $182 billion annually to cover the costs incurred by the presence of 20 million undocumented immigrants and their children, which includes $66.5 billion in federal expenses and an additional $115.6 billion in state and local expenses.
- The Biden administration’s agenda, which sought to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services to undocumented immigrants, has cost federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
- Since 2021, more than $1 billion has been allocated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to undocumented immigrants.
Other groups dispute the cost of undocumented immigration to the U.S. economy. A study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal tax research group, found those in the United States without legal status have contributed billions of dollars to the Social Security system. According to the libertarian CATO institute, "the biggest myth in the debate over immigrant welfare use is that noncitizens -- which include illegal immigrants and those lawfully present on various temporary visas and green cards -- disproportionately consume welfare. That is not the case. Noncitizen immigrants consumed 54% less welfare than native-born Americans."
The administration disagrees.
“President Trump is committed to safeguarding federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” the executive order said.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
