SummaryThis week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy explores the relationship between the cost of illegal immigration and the Biden-Harris administration’s abuse of parole. Joining host Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, are Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy Studies, and George Fishman, the Center’s Senior Legal Fellow.
Vaughan highlights her recent report on Massachusetts as a case study of the long-term costs of mass illegal immigration. She asserts that “people have not been focusing on the long-term cost ... and that long-term cost is going to clearly eclipse the [short-term] cost of [migrant] shelters.” Specifically, she discusses how the Biden-Harris administration’s policy of paroling millions of illegal aliens into the U.S. is a “fiscal time bomb”, as many of these aliens will qualify for welfare benefits in the coming years.
Fishman explains how the time bomb works: the Biden-Harris administration’s abuse of the parole system interacts with the 1996 welfare reform law, which allows paroled aliens to access welfare benefits after residing in the U.S. for five years – a “parole payday” which Fisman explored in a 2023 report. As a result, over one million aliens paroled into the U.S. since 2021 will start becoming eligible for welfare benefits as early as 2026.
To mitigate the burden that mass immigration places on the welfare system, Vaughan suggests that sponsors of parolees should be required to register with the state and thus have their income factored into the decision whether to grant welfare benefits to an alien. Additionally, Fishman suggests that the 1996 welfare reform law should be reformed so that parolees no longer qualify for welfare benefits.
In his closing, Krikorian highlights two recent Center publications – a report on the enormous changes the Biden-Harris administration made to the refugee resettlement program and an article discussing one of those changes: the Safe Mobility Office Initiative in Latin America, which is responsible for flying in thousands of people who would not have qualified as refugees in the past. These pieces highlight the administration’s perspective that any foreigner should have the opportunity to come to the U.S., pointing to the crux of the immigration debate: should American immigration policies serve the interest of the American people or foreign citizens?Highlights:
