Study: Nearly 3-in-5 Illegal Alien Households Are on Taxpayer-Funded Welfare

Close to 60 percent of households headed by illegal aliens use at least one major form of welfare, an analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals.

The CIS analysis from Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler shows illegal aliens and legal immigrants, in general, use “significantly more” welfare than native-born American citizens.

For example, about 59 percent of households headed by illegal aliens use welfare and about 52 percent of households headed by legal immigrants use at least one form of welfare. At the same time, fewer than 4-in-10 households headed by native-born American citizens use welfare.

“… this is primarily because the American welfare system is designed in large part to help low-income families with children, which describes a large share of immigrants,” CIS researchers note.

In particular, the study found that immigrant-headed households use far more food stamps, Medicaid benefits, and the Earned Income Tax Credit than native-born American households.

“Compared to households headed by the United States-born, immigrant-headed households have especially high use of food programs (36 percent vs. 25 percent for the U.S.-born), Medicaid (37 percent vs. 25 percent for the U.S.-born), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (16 percent vs. 12 percent for the U.S.-born),” CIS researchers state.

The use of taxpayer-funded welfare among illegal aliens as well as legal immigrants is significant as the nation’s foreign-born population hits new record highs under President Joe Biden.

CIS researchers, last month, unveiled that 49.5 million foreign-born residents now live across the U.S. — the largest ever in American history and the overwhelming majority of which is driven by legal immigration levels. For comparison, the foreign-born population was just 9.7 million in 1960.

Biden has increased the foreign-born population by 4.5 million since January 2021.

Without reductions to legal immigration levels, where more than a million legal immigrants are rewarded green cards annually, the foreign-born population is expected to hit 70 million by 2060.

American voters continuously tell pollsters they want cuts to overall immigration, mostly legal immigration. The latest survey from Rasmussen Reports showed 56 percent of likely voters want legal immigration levels cut to at least 750,000 admissions a year — including a plurality who said they want to see fewer than 500,000 admissions a year.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.