Unlike many native-born welfare recipients, Mexican immigrants are also not mired in long-term dependency. According to a study by Jennifer Van Hook and Frank D. Bean, 58 percent of Mexican immigrants exited cash-assistance programs within one year, compared with only 38 percent of non-Hispanic white natives. Most Mexican recipients work, albeit at low-paid jobs, and the Van Hook/Bean hypothesis is that Mexican immigrant culture “encourages less welfare participation . . . and more post-welfare employment.” But more important, conservatives’ goal should be dismantling the most destructive elements of the welfare state itself. Stopping immigration won’t accomplish that.

Nor does Lowry mention that immigrants actually subsidize our biggest entitlement programs, Medicare and Social Security, to the tune of billions of dollars each year. Without immigrants and their contributions, these programs would already be years closer to insolvency. The title of a paper by Leah Zallman for the Partnership for a New American Economy, a pro-immigration group of 500 Republican and Democratic mayors and business leaders, says it all: “Staying Covered: How Immigrants Prolonged the Solvency of One of Medicare’s Key Trust Funds and Subsidized Care for U.S. Seniors.” Looking at data from the Current Population Survey and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for the years 1996 to 2011, she found that immigrants contributed $182.4 billion more to Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund than they consumed in benefits. And even when immigrants were beneficiaries, their benefits were lower than for the native-born, especially among those who were non-citizens. Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration, noted that illegal immigrants have “a net positive effect on Social Security financial status generally,” contributing $12 billion to the cash flow of the Social Security Trust Funds in 2010. “We estimate that future years will experience a continuation of this positive impact on the trust funds,” he said.