SHOCKER: Two of Three Illegal Immigrant Households Dependent on Welfare Payments

Steven A. Camarota, writing at the Center for Immigration Studies, has some astoundingly useful data to help inform the 2016 Presidential election. Using Census Bureau data, a comprehensive study examined welfare use by all immigrant households.

The executive summary: roughly two of every three illegal immigrant households are dependent on one or more types of welfare payment. And more than half are on Medicaid.

...The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants have modest levels of education; therefore, the high use of welfare associated with less-educated legal immigrants indicates that legalization would likely increase welfare costs, particularly for cash and housing programs...

...households headed by legal immigrants shows that, unlike illegal immigrant households, legal immigrant households use every type of program at relatively high rates. Legal immigrant households have higher welfare use than native households for cash, food, and Medicaid. Looking at the individual programs shown in Table 1 indicates that legal immigrant households have statistically significant higher use than natives for SSI, school lunch, WIC, food stamps, and Medicaid. Table 1 makes clear that the inclusion of illegal immigrants in the SIPP does not explain the relatively high use of welfare by immigrant households overall. Illegal immigrants tend to lower the rates for immigrants for some programs, while raising it for others. But both legal and illegal immigrant households make extensive use of the welfare system.

But remember, folks: according to the loathsome Tom Donahue and the Chamber of Crony Capitalism, these unvetted welfare recipients are here to do the work Americans won't do.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.