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FIRST ON FOX: Republicans are seeking to prevent welfare and other benefits from going to illegal immigrants on parole in the U.S., and are looking to get it through the budget reconciliation process, avoiding the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) will introduce the “America First Act” on Wednesday, which would change requirements outlined in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to explicitly exclude people in the country illegally, including people with asylum, who are paroled in the country or people who cannot be deported.
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Lee hopes to pass the measure through budget reconciliation. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
These people would not be eligible to receive welfare benefits, including participation in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, the Social Security Child Health Insurance (CHIP) or certain housing benefits.
“For years, Americans have been told that illegal immigrants are barred from receiving federal benefits to distract attention from Washington’s utter inability to secure our borders,” Lee said in a communicated “This is a lie. Millions of illegal immigrants ‘convicted’ in the United States, many for fraudulent asylum applications, have gained the ability to access welfare and aid programs originally designed to help northern families Americans, not to attract and support massive populations of foreign citizens.The America First Act ignores this criminal redistribution scheme that Joe Biden and generations of dishonest politicians have imposed on the American people.”
The bill is also being introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.
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Border Patrol collects a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the US-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, US, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
Many bills have met their doom in the Senate as a result of legislative filibuster, which can block measures that fall short of 60 votes on a cloture motion.
However, when a policy is passed through budget reconciliation, which Republicans will use in the new Congress to approve President-elect Donald Trump’s key priorities, it can move forward with only a simple majority.
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Here’s how Lee, Roy and Arrington hope to get their legislation across the finish line. The Utah senator is currently negotiating to include the policy in the upcoming budget reconciliation package, where it would act as a “payment” for other items, such as border security.
Lee’s office pointed to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) July report on the “Effects of Increased Immigration on the Federal Budget and the Economy.” As the senator’s team highlighted, the CBO revealed, “Increased immigration adds $0.3 trillion to federal mandated program expenditures and net debt interest spending over 2024-2034 to CBO projections.”
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Roy and Arrington are introducing the bill in the House. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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The Republican bill would also eliminate the eligibility of these described non-citizens for various education, health and housing benefits, disaster relief or tax credits.
The White House did not comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
