Immigrants were claiming 54 percent less in benefits from the federal government than native-born American citizens, including Medicare and Social Security, a study released Tuesday showed.
The United States government spent about $3.1 trillion on welfare and entitlement programs in 2022, the Cato Institute found, but only about $109 billion was spent on non-citizens—including, but not exclusively, illegal immigrants.
“It’s a very small percentage, it’s much smaller than their share of the population would suggest,” Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, told Newsweek on Wednesday. “They use about 3.5 percent of benefits, but they’re over 7 percent of the population, but there is still scope for reducing their benefit access by restricting welfare to just citizens in the United States.”
Why It Matters
With a big focus on illegal immigration in the run-up to the 2024 election and President Donald Trump’s victory after a campaign focused on the issue, the spending of government funds on helping new arrivals has been a point of contention in Washington and around the country, with calls for money to be spent only on American citizens.
What To Know
The Cato Institute’s study, based on 2022 data available from the federal government, broke down spending among native-born Americans, naturalized immigrants and noncitizens. The latter group includes those in the country illegally, as well as those with temporary visas and green cards.
Nowrasteh and co-writer Jerome Famularo found that noncitizens were claiming $4,564 per capita, compared to $9,623 for native-born citizens and $11,135 for naturalized immigrants—i.e. immigrants who have become citizens, a demographic that is generally older.
“We want the general message that, hey, immigrants are not a drain on the welfare state, they consume less than native-born Americans, so that narrative is false, but there are still savings that can be captured,” Nowrasteh said.
Noncitizens received far less in Social Security benefits than the other two groups, at an average of $629.38 in a year. The demographic also came last in totals for nearly all other benefits analyzed, apart from Medicaid, where the average $2,099.51 came in just behind $2,504.10 for native-born Americans.
While much of the recent immigration surge has been from Central and South America, the data showed that Hispanic immigrants claimed fewer benefits than their white and Black counterparts, but more than those from Asia.
One issue when it comes to analyzing the data is that it is not possible to break down the noncitizen category further, meaning it is difficult to tell how much is being given to illegal immigrants versus those who have legal status and are paying into the system through taxes.
The Congressional Budget Office said in a July 2024 report that it expected to see a positive impact overall from the surge in immigrant arrivals in coming years, thanks to about $249 billion more in taxes paid between 2024 and 2028. It expected about $61 billion extra in benefits payouts to be made in that period, along with a reduction in the country’s deficit of $189 billion.
Another report, from the Bipartisan Policy Center in November 2024, found that immigrants paid about $383 billion in federal taxes, helping to fund the benefits programs all eligible U.S. residents are pulling from.
Nowrasteh said that if the federal government wants to make significant savings, then it needs to adjust the programs to tighten up who is entitled to make claims. But he said that’s difficult to do when programs are so popular among American citizens.
“I think what we’re trying to do with this report is also show that the problem is a domestic one and not imported,” Nowrasteh said. “The problem is not a foreign-born problem, it is a domestic native-born problem, which means that the choices for reform are harder, but at least we know where they are and we can be honest and open about that.”
What People Are Saying
Matthew Dickerson and Amelia Kuntzman, of the Economic Policy Innovation Center, in a December 2024 report: “The budget reconciliation process will allow Congress and the Trump Administration to take serious steps to crack down on the chaos at the border. This should include closing the loopholes and cutting off the billions in welfare benefits that are spent on illegal aliens. Not only is it commonsense policy to close the loopholes and stem illegal immigration, but it is a fiscally responsible step to stem these costs for the American taxpayer.”
The Bipartisan Policy Institute, in its November 2024 paper: “Given immigrants’ contributions to the economy, workforce, and tax revenues, most estimates point to immigration as a bright spot amidst mounting fiscal challenges. While immigration alone cannot resolve the nation’s fiscal challenges, its positive impact on economic growth and federal revenue highlights its role as a stabilizing force amid rising debt concerns.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has ended many Biden administration policies that allowed immigrants access to work authorization and protections, meaning their eligibility to pay into the system and receive benefits could not be cut off. As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its work to root out alleged government waste, payouts again could be scrapped or adjusted to create savings.
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