More than half of immigrant-headed households are on one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare, far surpassing the welfare use of native-born American households, newly released analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies revealed.
The figures, based on the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) in 2024, show that 53 percent of immigrant-headed households — including those headed by naturalized citizens, legal immigrants, and illegal aliens — are on at least one welfare program.
Compare that to 37 percent of American-headed households on welfare.
When naturalized citizens are taken out of the picture, the data shows that almost 6-in-10 households headed by legal immigrants and illegal aliens are on at least one form of welfare — including 45 percent on Medicaid, 42 percent on food stamps, 20 percent on cash assistance, and 4 percent on housing assistance.
About 61 percent of illegal alien-headed households, alone, receive welfare, including 44 percent on Medicaid, 44 percent on food stamps, 21 percent on cash assistance, and two percent on housing assistance.
Even among legal immigrants, welfare use exceeds that of native-born Americans.
A little more than half of households headed by legal immigrants are on welfare, including 38 percent on Medicaid, 32 percent on food stamps, 21 percent on cash assistance, and six percent on housing assistance.
Center for Immigration Studies researchers Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler wrote that the federal government’s efforts to prevent illegal aliens from receiving welfare have been wholly ineffective.
“All of this means that the current family-based legal immigration system, and widespread toleration of illegal immigration, is very unlikely to shore up public coffers, even though immigrants have relatively high rates of work,” Camarota and Zeigler wrote:
If we wish to avoid high use of welfare by the foreign-born in the future, then moving to a system that selects immigrants based on their education or skills makes it much more likely they will earn higher incomes and not need welfare. Since more than one-fifth of all immigrant households using at least one welfare program are headed by an illegal immigrant, enforcing immigration laws and reducing the size of the illegal immigrant population would also be helpful in lowering future immigrant welfare use. [Emphasis added]
The data comes as President Donald Trump’s State Department recently halted immigration from 75 countries with the highest rates of welfare use among their respective nationals living in the U.S.
“The pause impacts dozens of countries – including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea – whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused. The Trump Administration will always put America First.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.