Illegal Immigrants To Be Hit Hard As SNAP and WIC Benefits Expire

Among our prior findings:

• Of households headed by illegal immigrants, CIS estimated that 59 percent use one or more welfare programs — cash, food assistance, Medicaid, or housing.
• Illegal immigrant households have especially high use of food programs, with 48 percent enrolled in one or more of these programs — SNAP, WIC, or school lunch/breakfast.
• In particular, our analysis found that 17 percent of illegal immigrant households used SNAP.
• In addition to food programs, 18 percent of illegal immigrant households were enrolled in one of the cash programs; 4 percent were using a housing program; and 39 percent used Medicaid.
• Illegal immigrants often receive welfare on behalf of U.S.-born children, and illegal immigrant children can receive school lunch/breakfast and WIC directly. Some states provide Medicaid to illegal immigrants, and a few offer SNAP. Several million illegal immigrants also have been issued Social Security numbers allowing them to receive cash payments from the earned income tax credit if they work.
• Many immigrants have modest levels of education and low incomes, so suspension of WIC and SNAP will impact a large share of this population. But this situation raises important policy questions, including whether it makes sense to have an immigration system that allows in so many people who turn to taxpayers to support their children.

Link to earlier report: https://cis.org/Report/Welfare-Use-Immigrants-and-USBorn

Direct link to Excel tables: https://cis.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/camarota-welfare-excel_0.xl…