Report: Immigrants Receive More Welfare Than Do Natives

The Center For Immigration Studies, in a report published in the Washington Examiner says 51 percent of immigrant households in the U.S., legal and illegal, received some sort of welfare benefits in 2012 for a total of 103 billion dollars. That compares with 30 percent of what are defined as native households. The Center sites statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2012, the most recent year that statistics were available.

The report also says illegal immigrant households receive an average of $5,692 in federal benefits annually while the average native household gets only $4,431. That's a 41 percent difference. The Center says immigrants from Mexico and Central America can collect as much as $8,251 dollars, some 86 percent more than native households.

The newspaper says the report also concludes that the average immigrant household consumes 33 percent more cash welfare, 57 percent more food assistance and 44 percent more Medicaid than the average native household.

The Washington Examiner's report says the greater consumption of welfare dollars by immigrants cab be explained in large part by their lower level of education and larger number of children compared to natives.