“Illegals come here for a free ride and live off of welfare!”
I’ve heard this argument or a variation of it quite often. The idea generally is that undocumented individuals come to the United States specifically to take advantage of the perceived “free ride” offered by State and Federally funded social programs. This claim isn’t unique to non-citizens; it’s just the flavor of the week for who is taking advantage of the system at any given time. The echoes of the “welfare mom” era ring in my ears, slightly louder than the tinnitus working on F-16s gave me.
Is there any truth to this claim? What does the data say, and what should we make of it? In the post, I aim to answer those questions.
My Own Experience with “The System”
My mom was an incredibly loud, outspoken woman. She was active in the local historical society (which she called the hysterical society), went to city hall meetings, and was a thorn in the side of the Catholic school principal who tried to remove a student whose family couldn’t afford tuition. Mrs. S, in whichever house she’s currently haunting, will probably never forget the new asshole my mom ripped her over that incident.
My mom was also a single mother who owned several businesses. One was a RadioShack, another was a video rental business, and the final was a flooring retail and installation shop. All was going swimmingly until she lost her business and our house in the 2008 recession. My brother and I were still kids at home during this time period, so we all lived through it together. My mom decided to go back to school after her bankruptcy to get the R.N. license she had planned to get right out of High School.
During this time, we got food stamps and state healthcare. My dad had lost legal custody of us around the same time but still contributed a bit in child support – certainly not enough to keep us afloat. My mom needed those benefits to survive. After she completed her schooling, she stopped getting food stamps but stayed on state insurance due to her income. Never did she misuse her benefits, and she was certainly not proud to have needed outside support, but she did what she needed to do for us.
Okay, enough Hannah history! Now for some research.
Minnesota SNAP Benefit Recipient Demographics
For this project, I’m going to use the SNAP recipient decmographics in the state of MN. SNAP funding has been withheld from MN due to the “fraud” and is one that is very commonly used by single or low-income families to afford food. Food is like, kinda important to survival.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being”. SNAP funds the EBT program we are all more familiar with.
First, a disclaimer on who is eligible for SNAP. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill issued the following memorandum about which Non-Citizens are eligible for SNAP:
Eligible Immediately:
- Non-citizen U.S. nationals
- Cuban and Haitian entrants
- Compacts of Free Association (COFA) citizens
Eligible after a 5-Year Waiting Period:
- Lawful permanent residents (LPR) (also known as Green Card holders)
Did this bill change anything about undocumented individuals being eligible for SNAP?
No. From the SNAP program guidelines, “SNAP eligibility has never been extended to undocumented non-citizens”.
According to the USDA, the average amount a SNAP user in Minnesota receives per month in benefits is $127. That is $1,524 in benefits per year.
Minnesota releases a report annually that clearly that outlines SNAP usage in the state. Reports can be found here.
To break the data down, I will chart the values of three years’ worth of data to find trends. The years I am choosing are 2015, 2019, and 2023. Based on the report time vs. the fiscal year it covers, I’m guessing 2023 is the last year available simply because it takes that long to compile the report. In 2026, I’d expect them to release the FY 2024 numbers. The FYs I chose were aimed to see if the data fluctuates at all with Obama, Trump and Biden’s terms in the corresponding years.
Let’s have a look at Citizenship to start off.
From the 2024 ACS Survey, here are the citizenship estimates for MN. Disclaimer here! ACS is a self-reported survey, so take these numbers with a grain of salt:
Summary is that Non-Citizens using SNAP in MN is declining. Math is hard, but as of 2023 Non-Citizen households were only about 32% more likely (relative to their population share, which again, is a self-reported survey estimate) to be on SNAP.
Next, let’s repeat the experiment charting usage by race.
And the breakdown of estimates of population by race in MN:
We can see from these charts that certain races are more likely to be on SNAP when compared to their racial “slice” in the population.
Overall, I think it’s fair to say that a SNAP shows no signs of systematic abuse by “non-citizens”. Individuals of non-White racial background are more likely to be on SNAP than their White peers, but it’s not directly tied to their Citizenship status. I can think of a whole host of socio-economic reasons for this: racial bias, poverty level and education disparities come to mind. Fuel for a future study!
For the issue on Non-Citizens being slightly more likely to be on SNAP, imagine this: your move your whole family to a new country to escape a war or persecution in your home country. You don’t speak the language yet, and your new country doesn’t recognize the professional degree you achieved in your home country. What options do you have for work for the first few years? Are you going to be able to feed a family working a low-skill labor job?
One key takeaway here: UNDOCUMENTED INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT AND HAVE NEVER BEEN ELIGIBLE FOR SNAP. Scream it from the rooftops.
Medicaid Usage by Demographic in Minnesota
State-run health insurance is another important program that is federally funded. Children, pregnant women and seniors especially need these programs to get the care they need in life. My kids bring home strep at least twice a year it seems, and I think I’d go bankrupt testing and treating their various illnesses without insurance.
While I get employer-sponsored health insurance, many don’t and need support from the state to not break the bank when their kid breaks an arm.
Knowing the facts of how much of the population each race represents, let’s break down how each race uses Medicaid in MN. This data comes from the years 2020 and 2024, reported by MN DHS. Note that Citizenship data is not available, but just like with SNAP, only lawful immigrants are eligible for Medicaid according to the eligibility requirements.
So, here’s another chart!
Notice that being Hispanic in Origin is left out. These numbers are reported separately, and look like this:
Again, here is the chart of percentage of the population of the whole by race:
Just as we see with SNAP users, Non-White households are more likely to be on Medicaid when comparing their population share in the state. Just like with SNAP, socio-economic factors are in play here and are fuel for a future project to undertake!
Remember to scream it from the rooftops: UNDOCUMENTED INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR MEDICAID!
Conclusion
Looking at these metrics, I feel fairly confident in stating that there is no evidence that undocumented immigrants come here to in any way “leech off” our social welfare systems. They’re simply not eligible for these programs. There are disparities when examining race vs. likelihood to be on SNAP/Medicaid, yes. Socio-economic factors undoubtedly impact these numbers.
As a final thought: The $127/month received for each person on SNAP is not a “living wage”. In the average 30 day month, a person needs to eat 90 meals to reach three meals a day. That $127 dollars means each meal must cost $1.37 to only use SNAP benefits for their total caloric intake. Which will get you, like, this much food:
Thanks for reading!