Q&A of the Day – How illegal immigrants obtain government benefits – Part 1
It’s the Q&A of the day. Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1
Today’s question was submitted via email…
Why hasn't any investigative reporter done a story on what happens after illegals get into the country? How do they find housing, food, schooling, medical care, transportation, etc. We have over 300,000 people sneaking into this country every year- what happens to them, where do they go, how do they find employment?
Bottom Line: At my most cynical, I’d suggest something you’ve probably heard me say... If one’s first act in the US is to break the law (by virtue of being here illegally), why should we expect them to respect our laws once they are here? In December I addressed the question of how many illegal immigrants end up on government welfare programs based on ground breaking research from the Center for Immigration Services. Here’s a quick recap.
- 63 percent of households headed by a non-citizen used at least one welfare program in the prior year
- Compared to native households, non-citizen households are more than twice as likely to end up on government assistance
- The longer an illegal immigrant is in the US, the more likely they are to end up on assistance (of households headed by non-citizens in the United States for fewer than 10 years, 50 percent use one or more welfare programs; for those here more than 10 years, the rate is 70 percent)
The programs being exploited run the gambit of welfare programs. Among them...
- Financial welfare
- Housing
- Medicaid
- SNAP
- WIC
- School lunch
In Florida, we have the 4th most abuse of these programs by non-citizens and the estimated annual abuse is $26.8 billion nationally.
But your question asked how they get on them in the first place. It’s complicated but I’ll focus on a few of the most pervasive ways it happens. First up...individual state policy. I’ll pick up on it in part two of today’s story. Here's the direct link: https://ihr.fm/2OW0bLW