Hispanic Immigrants THREE TIMES More Likely To Be On Welfare Than American Whites | VDARE

http://www.vdare.com/articles/hispanic-immigrants-three-times-likely-to-be-on-welfare-than-american-whites

One of the Open Borders Lobby’s most constant refrains is that immigrants come here for jobs, not welfare. A few examples:

• Immigrants Are Attracted to Jobs, Not Welfare, Alex Nowrasteh, Cato Institute, March 25, 2013
• “[T]he vast majority of immigrants come here for jobs, not handouts” [The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, by James Guskin & David L. Wilson, p. 64, 2007]
• “Undocumented workers come to the United States in search of jobs, not welfare payments”[Barrios and Borderlands, by Dennis Lynn Daly Heyck, p. 319, 2014]
• “[Latino] immigrants, like most before them, have come in search for a better life through jobs, not welfare” [The Myth of Post-Racial America, by H. Roy Kaplan, p. 99, 2011]

As coming for work does not preclude immigrants from obtaining welfare, these are not mutually exclusive possibilities. In fact, 75% of the “working poor” in America are on welfare. [Working, But Needing Public Assistance Anyway, By Patricia Cohen, NYT, April 12, 2015]. Thus importing low skilled workers to fill low wage jobs will also likely swell the welfare state.
Sure enough, a recent Center for Immigration Studies analysis by Steve Camarota finds just that. [Welfare Use by Immigrant and Native Households, September 2015]. According to the study, 51% of immigrant-headed households use some form of means tested welfare, including direct cash assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing. (Note that this is Census data and includes both legal and illegal immigrants).
In contrast, only 30% of native-born American headed-households received welfare.