During the first presidential debate, former President Donald Trump claimed the Biden-Harris administration is "trying to put [illegal immigrants] on Social Security." So-called fact checkers immediately swarmed to debunk the Republican candidate. But he was largely correct.
When most people think of Social Security , they envision the main retirement benefit for seniors. But the Social Security Administration actually operates several programs for elderly, disabled, and low-income Americans. While foreigners who cross the border illegally generally don't qualify for retirement benefits, they can receive substantial cash payments from these other Social Security programs.
In particular, foreign nationals can qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the Social Security program designed to assist people with little or no income.
Legal immigrants, such as green card holders and refugees, can qualify for SSI.
But crucially, other foreigners can also qualify, including those who came here without visas but who received a temporary reprieve from deportation. Eligible foreigners include parolees, Cubans, Haitians, Afghans, Ukrainians, and migrants who've been granted conditional entry or asylum.
Admittedly, not everyone from those groups qualifies. Those foreigners generally also must have resided in the United States for a certain amount of time, or have married a member of the U.S. military , or claim to be victims of human trafficking.
But even with those additional delays and qualifications, nearly 325,000 noncitizens received SSI benefits in 2023, according to preliminary estimates from the Social Security Administration.
That number could rise even higher once the parolees and other foreigners who've entered under the Biden-Harris administration have lived here for a certain period of time.
So far, the administration has paroled at least 462,100 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans into the United States, as well as 187,000 Ukrainians and tens of thousands of Afghan nationals. Many of them could ultimately receive SSI benefits, especially if a future Harris administration relaxes the criteria needed to qualify.
And of course, Social Security is hardly the only government program that foreigners, including illegal immigrants, are tapping into.
Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation indicate that 59% of noncitizen households — a classification that includes both legal and illegal immigrants — utilize at least one major welfare program. By comparison, only 39% of U.S.-born households rely on welfare programs. Noncitizen households are receiving everything from Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to welfare for their U.S.-born children, school breakfasts and lunches, and earned income tax credits.
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Democrats haven't shown signs of backing off, either. On Jan. 1, California became the first state to offer all low-income illegal immigrants health coverage through Medi-Cal, the state-run health insurer.
Trump's warning about Social Security wasn't hyperbole. Congress needs to comprehensively review America's immigration policies and benefit programs to ensure they serve the interests of U.S. citizens.
Eric Ruark is director of research and public relations at NumbersUSA.
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