But they DO help pay for yours.
One of the most effective ploys by those attempting to vilify undocumented immigrants is to assert that those immigrants are stealing benefits from Americans. Donald Trump has deployed this falsehood on multiple occasions both in his speeches and on Twitter long before becoming president. It’s an insinuation quite divorced from reality.
Thing is? This wasn’t a new policy Trump was proposing. It’s already the law. Bill Clinton signed such a bill over 20 years earlier in 1996: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, or “IIRIRA.” Congress legislated that not only would undocumented immigrants not receive welfare, but legal immigrants wouldn’t get benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid or money for child assistance until they’ve lived here at least five years and even seven years after their arrival.
What Undocumented Immigrants Receive vs. What They Don’t
To be clear, there are many different types of benefits a resident of the United States can receive. Let’s take a fact-based look at what benefits undocumented immigrants do and do not receive then in the United States.
Here’s a listing of benefits undocumented immigrants expressly do not receive:
Trump and others should stop repeating the same old lies about immigrants stealing benefits from American citizens. Republicans are the only ones who keep repeating these lies.
One of the most effective ploys by those attempting to vilify undocumented immigrants is to assert that those immigrants are stealing benefits from Americans. Donald Trump has deployed this falsehood on multiple occasions both in his speeches and on Twitter long before becoming president. It’s an insinuation quite divorced from reality.
Thing is? This wasn’t a new policy Trump was proposing. It’s already the law. Bill Clinton signed such a bill over 20 years earlier in 1996: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, or “IIRIRA.” Congress legislated that not only would undocumented immigrants not receive welfare, but legal immigrants wouldn’t get benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid or money for child assistance until they’ve lived here at least five years and even seven years after their arrival.
What Undocumented Immigrants Receive vs. What They Don’t
To be clear, there are many different types of benefits a resident of the United States can receive. Let’s take a fact-based look at what benefits undocumented immigrants do and do not receive then in the United States.
Here’s a listing of benefits undocumented immigrants expressly do not receive:
- Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP)
- Disability, aka Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Food stamps, aka The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- Health insurance, aka insurance via the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Social Security
- Welfare
- Emergency medical care, including ER visits and Emergency Medicaid
- Schooling
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
Trump and others should stop repeating the same old lies about immigrants stealing benefits from American citizens. Republicans are the only ones who keep repeating these lies.