Immigration Economics

Myths that Won’t Die: “Immigrants Take American Jobs and Bloat Welfare Rolls”

President Trump wants $170 billion in immigrant “enforcement” dollars—more than combined FBI and CIA funding—to tighten or stop legal illegal immigration. The public is souring on this idea. Immigrants are confused and scared.

The plan: Spend $45 billion to double immigrant-detention capacity. But siting these prisons has become problematic. Communities are balking. Lawmakers in Democratic-led states are introducing legislation to block or “discourage” these Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. Such prisons would expand the already-booming, profitable prison industry.

News of these planned "warehouses" for deportees has touched a public nerve.

Myriad myths surround immigrants and immigration. Contrary to widespread opinion, immigrants do not overuse the “welfare system.” A 2023 study found that per capita, immigrants used 24 percent fewer welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans. At 14.8 percent of the US population, immigrants used only 10.4 percent of these means-tested benefits. Non-citizen immigrants who are lawfully in the United States with contemporary visas, lawful permanent residents, and illegal immigrants—used 53 percent fewer “welfare” benefits than native-born Americans. Noncitizens, 7.5 percent of the population, consumed just 3.2 percent of all welfare benefits.

Naturalized immigrants, 7.2 percent of the population, used 8 percent in welfare benefits, 20 percent more than native-born citizens because the population uses Social Security and immigrant-eligible voters skew older than their U.S.-born counterparts. They’re also more likely to have a bachelor’s degree; they live in households with slightly higher incomes and have lower levels of English proficiency.

Curtailing immigration would hurt the economy. Immigrants start businesses, help drive innovation, and fill “essential workforce needs,” which often means doing jobs Americans can’t or won’t do. When whole families immigrate, it effectively strengthens the middle class, “promotes family unity and integration,” a time-honored American value. Many immigrants become citizens, swearing allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

Most immigration research demonstrates the value of immigration.  So why is the Trump Administration tightening or halting entry into the United States and even building detention warehouses and doubling capacity.

That is more than a little scary. The massive construction will enrich the nation’s corporate prison builders.

Some experts think we need to encourage legal immigration, protect and expand levels, and reform policy to make it “easier, safer, faster, and more efficient for prospective immigrants to enter the United States.”

Consider these findings from the Economic Policy Institute: Immigrants are disproportionately more likely than native-born residents to be working. In 2023, at 14.3 percent of the U.S. population, they were 18.6 percent of the work force. Between 2005 and 2010, immigrants had an 80 percent higher rate of starting their own firms than U.S.-born peers.  In 2013, immigrants represented 16 percent of the U.S. labor force, 18 percent of business owners; 28 percent of Main Street businesses like retail, food services, and accommodation, and neighborhood services such as nail salons, beauty shops, and gas stations.

Research demonstrates the value of immigration. Can we afford to ignore contributions of immigrants? We curtail legal immigration  at our peril.

Betty Joyce Nash reported for the Greensboro News & Record and the Hendersonville Times-News before moving to Virginia where she worked as an economics writer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. She co-edited Lock & Load: Armed Fiction, an anthology of literary short stories that probe Americans' complicated relationship to firearms. (University of New Mexico Press, 2017.)