In the News

By Julia Johnson
AS SEEN IN FOX NEWS

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans are looking to stop welfare and other benefits from going to illegal immigrants paroled into the U.S. — and they are angling to pass it through the budget reconciliation process, bypassing the Senate's 60-vote legislative filibuster.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is introducing the "America First Act" on Wednesday, which would change the requirements outlined in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to explicitly exclude people in the country illegally, including those granted asylum, those who are paroled into the country or people being withheld from deportation. 

These individuals would not be eligible to receive welfare benefits, including participation in programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or certain housing benefits. 

"For years, Americans have been told that illegal immigrants are barred from receiving federal benefits to distract from Washington’s complete failure to secure our borders," said Lee in a statement. "This is a lie. Millions of illegal immigrants ‘paroled’ into the United States, many for fraudulent asylum claims, have gained the ability to access welfare and aid programs originally designed to help American families, not attract and support massive populations of foreign citizens. The America First Act pulls the plug on this criminal redistribution scheme forced upon the American people by Joe Biden and generations of dishonest politicians."

The bill is also being introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas and Jodey Arrington, R-Texas. 

"Millions of illegal aliens are exploiting U.S. welfare and aid programs that are meant to help struggling Americans. This is inexcusable. Continuing to hand out welfare to illegals only acts as a magnet for them to keep flooding our communities. That’s why we introduced the America First Act to end illegal aliens’ ability to profit off of American taxpayer dollars once and for all," said Roy in a statement.

In his own statement, Arrington said, "Over the last four years, the unprecedented and unmitigated crisis at the southern border has devastated our communities.  As long as we provide taxpayer funded social services to illegal immigrants, there is no physical barrier or number of border patrol agents that will stop them."

"To add insult to injury, we’re paying $9,000 per illegal immigrant - more than we spend on Medicaid for our most vulnerable Americans or military retirement benefits for our soldiers. Today, I am proud to join Rep. Chip Roy and Senator Mike Lee in introducing the America First Act, which would cut off federal benefits for illegals and save over $177 billion."

Many bills have met their doom in the Senate as a result of the legislative filibuster, which can block measures that fail to reach 60 votes on a cloture motion.

However, when a policy is passed through budget reconciliation, which Republicans are set to use in the new Congress to pass key priorities of President-elect Donald Trump, it can be advanced with just a simple majority. 

This is how Lee, Roy and Arrington are hoping to get their legislation over the finish line. The Utah senator is currently negotiating to have the policy included in the upcoming budget reconciliation package, where it would act as a "pay-for" for other items, such as border security. 

Lee's office pointed to the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) July report on the "Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy." As the senator's team highlighted, the CBO revealed, "The immigration surge adds $0.3 trillion to outlays for federal mandatory programs and net spending for interest on the debt over the 2024–2034 period in CBO’s projections." 

The Republican bill would additionally remove eligibility of these outlined non-citizens for various educational, healthcare and housing benefits, disaster aid or tax credits. 

The White House did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.