Living in Broad Daylight

Illegal Aliens Don’t Live in the Shadows

By Alejandro C.

The narrative surrounding illegal immigrants often portrays them as living in the shadows, constantly fearful of deportation and subject to all kinds of extreme prejudice, prejudice the mainstream media would blame on the “MAGA” movement, whatever that means. However, a closer examination reveals a more nuanced reality. Many if not all illegal immigrants qualify for a range of state and federal benefits, including in many states officially issued ID, that allow them to live as if they were American citizens.

They may not pay the same taxes as Americans, and they certainly do not contribute to the upkeep of our public services, but they enjoy all of the benefits and often more than your average American[Study: Nearly 3-in-5 Illegal Alien Households Are on Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, by John Binder, Breitbart, December 23, 2023].

I can say this with some confidence as my father came to this country illegally in the 1980s and was eventually granted citizenship under the Reagan Amnesty. He married a native-born Californian woman of Heritage American stock and built a life here. Setting aside how much I loved and respected my late father, his example is not one to follow. He lived his entire life believing he was entitled to the benefits and trappings of the American welfare state despite the fact he came here illegally.

Worse still is that his behavior and the behavior of the nearly three million people Reagan amnestied set the stage for another potential mass amnesty which will only encourage yet further mass immigration into the United States.

If you think the nearly 10 million illegals who have entered this country under the Biden administration alone is a staggering figure, just wait until another amnesty is passed.

The first and perhaps most significant benefit which illegal aliens are able to obtain in the United States is access to American identification. California, New York, Virginia, and the nation’s capital are but a few of the 16 states that permit illegal aliens to obtain a driver’s license or state ID card.

This is despite the fact that a 2019 poll found 72% of Americans, including 58% of Democrats, are against issuing driver’s licenses to illegals.

But identity documents are only just the beginning. In some states, undocumented immigrants can access essential services like public education, emergency healthcare, and, in certain cases, food assistance.

The state of Illinois has been budgeting hundreds of millions of dollars a year to provide illegal aliens with free healthcare services and has ended up spending over a billion dollars in just 2023. Even the incredibly left-wing Politifact will back up the indisputable truth of American tax dollars being spent to provide healthcare to people who come to this country illegally, such as in this piece where Politifact covers the $2.4 billion that New York taxpayers will spend in the next two years to provide illegal aliens with healthcare services.

Healthcare is not free for native New Yorkers or other Americans in the state.

Healthcare is not all that the American taxpayer provides for lawbreakers who cross our Southern border, though. According to the left-wing organization Just Harvest six states: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, and Washington state still provide access to SNAP or SNAP like programs for illegal aliens. To compound the issue the Biden administration (and therefore a future Harris administration) has very loudly and proudly stated that it wants to provide universal SNAP benefits to immigrants regardless of their past, present, or future immigration status.

American tax dollars are apparently collected so that they can be spent on everyone from every corner of the world.

This includes spending which is mandated by Federal legislation or judicial fiat, the very worst kind of political mandate.

A ruling by the Supreme Court in the 1982 case Plyler V. Doe invented from thin air the idea that all immigrant children, regardless of legal status or the legal status of their families, are entitled to taxpayer funded education in the United States. This decision has resulted in hundreds of billions of dollar in additional education resources being poured into the American education system to attempt to educate the throngs of illegal aliens and their children. (Note: these are not the American-born children of illegals—they are children of school age who are illegally present in the United States.)

This has led to a significant increase in state spending on illegal aliens at the college level as well. Nearly 20 states, including extremely conservative states such as Texas, give ‘comprehensive’ access to tuition and financial aid to illegal aliens. Other states, such as Florida, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Arizona also offer some form of assistance. Very few states outright prohibit financial assistance from going to illegal aliens to attend college.

Finally, there is the issue of housing. A 2023 research paper by the Congressional Research Service found that immigrants, regardless of legal status, are eligible for a range of Federal grant-funded and housing assistance programs, including homelessness assistance. In the case of my own family my father was able to qualify for taxpayer assistance in housing because he had a US citizen child, me.

Even I can see that reckless spending like this creates a welfare state for the entire world to come and abuse.

It really leads to a final, albeit rhetorical, question: Who needs a global government when the entire world can simply come to the United States and apply for taxpayer funded healthcare, housing, and food assistance? The United Nations has no hope of global governance when the US welfare state stands ready to provide to the entire world.

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