That is from a recent Center for Immigration Studies report by Jason Richwine who analyzed the most recent Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Report to Congress.
The news comes at a time when the President is deciding how many refugees could be admitted to the US in FY19 which begins on October first.
John Binder at Breitbart penned a short piece on the CIS study entitled:
More Than Half of Foreign Refugees Are on Taxpayer-Funded Food Stamps
More than half of the annual inflow of foreign refugees arriving in the United States are on food stamps, a government report reveals.
Since 2008, as Breitbart News reported, the U.S. has permanently resettled more than 1.7 million foreign nationals and refugees through a variety of humanitarian programs like the Special Immigrant Juveniles and the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act. This is a foreign population larger than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — a city with more than 1.5 million residents.
An annual report by the Office of Refugee Resettlement was analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Jason Richwine, in which the analyst revealed that about 56 percent of households headed by foreign refugees who arrived in the U.S. between 2011 and 2015 are using taxpayer-funded food stamps.
Nearly 30 percent of refugees received cash welfare of some sort, while 34 percent of refugees 18-years-old or older said they had no health insurance. Of the refugees who said they did have health insurance, about 50 percent said they were either on Medicaid or Refugee Medical Assistance, both of which are taxpayer-funded.
Frankly I suspect the numbers are much worse.
The sampling used by the Office of Refugee Resettlement is tiny and dependent on how many of the refugees they can find via phone calls and how many will even participate by answering questions if they are found.
A large number are not even participating in the survey because of language barriers.
We have told you about the Annual Reports for years. Here is just one post in 2013 where we reported that food stamp use was 70% in Obama’s first year in office—2009!
Even in spite of the possible under counting in the welfare use sections, the reports are treasure troves of information for those of you trying to better understand how the refugee program works and what it might be doing to your towns and cities.
One of the things you will see in the reports is information on how many other grants and goodies the contractors receive over and above their per refugee head payment.
The US is no doubt importing poverty, something that the designers of the original Refugee Act of 1980 promised would not happen.
And, if you are saying to yourselves that new immigrants aren’t supposed to be eligible for welfare, remember that prohibition does not apply to refugees!
Below is the table from the 2016 Annual Report:
Just so you know we admitted 69,933 refugees to the US in FY2015 and for the whole accounting period above (FY11 through FY15) the total was 324,508 according to data at Wrapsnet.
Cutting numbers is a good start and we applaud the President, but the whole program must be reformed.
Do it now!
Contact the White House and tell the President what you think! See contact link in right hand sidebar here at RRW.