EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is urging key agencies in the Trump administration to recoup what he believes could amount to billions in Medicaid, SNAP and education expenses paid out to immigrants on the American taxpayer’s dime.
Banks, a first-term senator and conservative firebrand, argues that by law the sponsors of legal immigrants to the U.S. are required to reimburse the government for any welfare benefits used by their sponsee. Though written in law, the Immigration and Nationality Act, Banks said this has by and large not been carried out.
Under the Trump administration, however, he believes that can finally change.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to the secretaries of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the commissioners of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration, Banks asked the agencies to hold immigrant sponsors accountable and refund American taxpayers.
Banks cites a study by the Center for Immigration Studies that says illegal aliens cost American taxpayers an estimated $68 billion a year in public education costs, $42 billion in welfare, and $7 billion in medical treatment, which he said is “eclipsing the amount this group pays in taxes.”
Aside from the benefits paid out contrary to the law to illegal aliens, Banks said the government “may also be owed repayment for a large portion of lawful use.”
“It is the policy of the United States that aliens should not depend on public resources,” Banks wrote in the letter.
Despite this, Banks wrote that “most alien households receive means-tested [income-based] benefits,” such as Medicaid, SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).