The case against a nepotistic immigration system

Data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation show that a majority of legal- and illegal-immigrant households use at least one of the following welfare programs: Medicaid, cash programs including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food programs, and housing programs. Even excluding school-lunch programs, 46 percent of these households use welfare. Some benefits are explicitly allowed, such as free public school and food programs for immigrant children and women, as well as emergency-room services and public goods, but immigrants can also use their children born in the country to acquire other benefits. In addition, immigrants on Medicaid can access many services through Planned Parenthood, including abortion in some states.

Between the accessibility of welfare benefits and the relative strictness of other countries’ immigration policies compared with our own, the U.S.’s low-skilled labor force does not follow the laws of supply and demand. Instead, economically non-optimal levels of low-skilled immigrants come to the country and drive down wages for low-income Americans — disproportionately affecting African-Americans — past a point of maximizing economic benefit to all citizens.