IMMIGRANTS

TRUE or FALSE?

I guess that I have always been a bit confused over all the hub bub over immigrants - whether they are here legally or illegally. I don’t live in a border state. I don’t live in a sanctuary city. I do live in a valley full of peach and cherry trees, and miles and miles of grape vines. All of which need to be harvested, and as I ride my bike through these orchards and vineyards, I see plenty of Brown-skinned harvesters. But still, the Brown-skinned immigration issue just is not a thing...a point of contention here in the Grand Valley on Colorado’s western slope.

I’m intentionally emphasizing ‘Brown’ refugees. In January 2018 during a meeting about immigration policy, Trump asked, “Why we having all these people from “shit hole countries “come here? Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out. Why don’t we get more people from countries like Norway?” Haiti is some 90-95% Black. Norway is 85-90% White. Norwegians are happy to have national healthcare. Haitians would be happy to have any healthcare. Even ours. It’s hard for America to get very far away from our national issue with race.

I’ve noticed for a long, long time that a lot of the things Americans get their undergarments all bunched up about are things that our politicians have TOLD us to get our undies all bunched up about. Are folks who are striving to move up into the vaunted and shrinking middle class, or struggling to hold onto their tenuous grip REALLY concerned about who uses which bathroom? Probably not. We become concerned when our politicians, using it as a ‘divide and conquer’ wedge issue, TELL is to be concerned.

I would probably think it’s kind of weird to see a woman emerge from a stall in a men’s room. But I wouldn’t really care. I’ve experienced that in Canada. It would bother me a whole lot more to see a man emerge from a stall in a men’s room, bypass the handwashing sinks, grab the door handle and walk out. Because if a man is using a stall, well...we know what nasty thing he’s doing in there and he owes it to the rest of us to wash his hands, right? Right!

Politicians have worked hard to get us to focus our hate and anger and troubles on migrants. They do the jobs that White America doesn’t want to do. Harvesting peaches in the valley I live in is hard work. But bent over all day from dawn to dusk harvesting strawberries or spinach? Backbreaking. Years ago I washed dishes in a restaurant in CA. I didn’t last long. I’m not sure, but I don’t I think I was gainfully employed there for more than just a couple of days. Yet here we are...hating on people eager to do jobs that we won’t touch. Our fear and hatred has been laid out by our president and no uncertain terms. I had deep suspicions about his words, but I didn’t actually know.

A few years ago - 2017 - I had a short gig working for an outfit named BCFS that had contracted to the federal government. Lots of children from Central American countries were showing up at the border without any parents or adults caring for them. BCFS opened a facility on a shuttered army base in El Paso, Texas, and provided the children with remarkable care: Food, shelter, education, clothes, healthcare, and community while they tried to find them foster homes throughout the country.

I was never able to fully wrap my head around a situation that was so bad that a parent would hand their beloved child a couple of dollars, a sack full of food, point to an imaginary place thousands of miles north, and say. “Que vayas con Dios. ¡Te amo, mi amor!“ knowing that it was a distinct possibility that they would never see their child again, but knowing that even that was better than whatever sex or drug trafficking gang situation they were going to encounter if they stayed home. It opened my eyes to the ‘immigrant border crises’ and gave me some poignant insight into the issue.

So, no, I don’t believe all that about the criminality of immigrants. Or how much of our social safety net they use. I tend to believe that true or false, we are a beacon for people from our own hemisphere - a hemisphere that the United States has largely shaped - that are experiencing very hard and very difficult lives in their own country. I don’t think anyone is heading to Springfield Ohio or Buffalo NY for the stunning vistas and enjoyable weather. We set ourselves up as a beacon of hope and light to the entire world. And then we exercise cruelty and anger when immigrants march towards that beacon and show up on our shores. Or at our fence.

I wander around a lot! A close friend claims I am part gypsy. I stop at a lot of backwater places for gas or a hot dog and I’ve noticed a couple of things. First, hotdogs, often produce gas. But the second more important thing is that it is common for me to find a brown-skinned immigrant, working behind the counter, often in a lonely and remote place I wouldn’t consider living. I will almost always engage them in conversation so I can get around to asking, “How do you like it here? “And almost always their eyes light up, a big smile comes across their face, and they tell me that they love it here. Wherever it was they came from, I know that if they love it here, in thisplace, that they came from a pretty rough situation.

So rather than listen to and believe the rhetoric of a politician, I thought I’d poke around a bit and figure all this out. So that’s what I’ve been involved in in the last few weeks. Since January 31st. Turned out to be a really challenging project and I apologize for my long absence. I started on this in late January. I discovered pretty quickly that I could start with any viewpoint and find statistics to prove whatever point I wanted to make. Pulling them apart, figuring it out, and presenting them as honestly as I could figure out how has been challenging.

Immigrant crime

The rhetoric:

Kristi Noem, at the time, our beloved, secretary of our Department of Homeland Security with her always camera-ready hair, props, guns, bullet-proof vest, horse, and cowboy hat claimed that ICE had detained a cannibal who started to eat himself on the airplane. Ok...I was skeptical of that. And what the heck...if they’re eating themselves, then they’re not eating me and I’m in no danger. Likewise when Trump claimed that (Brown) “Immigrants (always Brown...no Norwegians involved) make the Hell’s Angels look like the most peaceful people on earth,” I was skeptical. I’ve seen a lot of Hells Angels. And I’ve seen a lot of immigrants. The Hells Angels look a hell of a lot scarier to me.

“It’s known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate because I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking. But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.

When Mexico sends it’s (Brown) people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapist.

Our leaders are stupid, our politicians are stupid, and the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them, they don’t want to take care of them.“

The data:

Using available arrest/conviction data, estimated shares of violent‑crime arrests/convictions attributable to each group in the U.S.:

• Native‑born citizens account for 80–85% of violent‑crime arrests/convictions

• Legal immigrants account for 7–10% of violent‑crime arrests/convictions

• Undocumented (illegal) immigrants, 5–10% of violent‑crime arrests/conviction

Since January 20, the Trump administration has deported a total of 114,860 people. Of that number, 9,137 had violent crime convictions. Of that number, just shy of 3,000 had entered the United States illegally. Another thousand had entered legally but had an expired visa. 3,400 were here legally as Lawful Permanent Resident/green card holders. Another thousand had temporary protected status. And another 703… who knows?

Reliable numbers are not available, but best guess estimates from legitimate sources estimate that between Jan 20, 2025 and Mar 29, 2026 between 887,500 and 1,025,000 people have been detained by ICE.

So of the between 887,500 to 1,025,00 people that have been detained,114,860 people - 11 to 13 percent - have been deported. Of that number about 2.6% had convictions for violent crime and were here illegally.

I’m all for not having a person who has committed a violent crime and is in the country illegally being discovered, arrested, detained, and deported, especially if they are one of Trump’s vaunted “worst of the worst”. But that’s a lot of people, a lot of effort, and a lot of expense - 114,860 men, women, and little kids - to get at less than 3,000 people. I can’t find out the exact nature of the crimes the immigrants committed. But I’m pretty skeptical of Trump’s “worst of the worst” claim. I’m pretty sure that what Trump means by “worse of the worst “ is that the person is Brown.

And it’s a lot of cruelty. Seven people detained by ICE sued the Trump administration on November 12 over inhumane conditions at just one facility - the privately owned California City Detention Facility. They cite punishing conditions, enforced isolation, neglect of people with disabilities, denial of access to counsel, and terrifyingly inadequate medical care.

Under the current administration, over the course of 14 months, 46 people (3. 3 per month) have died while in the custody of ICE and two protestors have been shot dead. During Obama’s 96 months, 67 immigrants died while in detention (.7 per month) - and zero protesters were killed. During Biden’s 48 months in office, 26 people died in detention (.5 per month) - and zero protesters were killed.

Accurate immigration numbers are impossible to get. Everything is a “best guess” estimate from reliable sources. But since everything is Joe Biden’s fault, I thought I’d compare the number of immigrants detained under Trump in his first 14 months in office with the number of immigrants detained under Biden in his last 14 months in office. I often hear that Biden’s “Open border” really was a huge problem that Trump did actually have to do something about.

· Trump - estimated number of deportations during his first 14 months in office: a paltry 114,860

· Biden - estimated number of deportations in his last 14 months in office: a whopping 331,000.

Immigrant welfare

The rhetoric: “Rampant welfare abuse by non-citizens is changing the social safety net, and jeopardizing benefits needed by the most vulnerable American citizens. As a result of our broken rules, the annual green card flow is mostly low wage and low skill. Newcomers compete for jobs against the most vulnerable Americans and put pressure on our social safety net and generous welfare programs.

I am enforcing existing restrictions on welfare used by non-citizens in order to promote self-sufficiency. I implemented a historic public charge regulation to finally and fully enforced. The federal requirement that newcomers to our country must be financially self-sufficient. They cannot accept welfare for at least five years.

Vast numbers of non-citizens and their families take advantage of our welfare programs. 78% of house hold headed by a non-citizen with more than a high school. Education can use at least one welfare program. 50% of all household by a non-citizen use at least one welfare program. 50% of all non-citizen household included at least one person who receives health insurance through Medicaid. They’re coming in by the millions… and they’re going right onto welfare, and they’re going right onto all of the things that you’re paying for.

For decades, politicians have ignored the problems caused by our current system, including rampant welfare abuse by non-citizens. They’re coming in by the millions… and they’re going right onto welfare, and they’re going right onto all of the things that you’re paying for. They’re loading up our welfare system… and it’s not sustainable. Democrats are destroying Social Security and Medicare by allowing millions of people to come into our country. They’re filling up Social Security and Medicare with people that shouldn’t be there.”

Do immigrants really come here for the so-called welfare benefits? Do they drain the bank? I have no idea, and I’m skeptical of what I hear from the very highest levels of American government. But I know that we are spending around a billion dollars a day fighting a war that no one seems to be able to explain what we are doing or what it will take to end it. I know when we want to spend money, we seem to have plenty of it to spend.

The data: In speaking about immigrants, it’s important to realize there are distinct categories. Documented immigrants who are in this country legally. And undocumented immigrants are in this country illegally.

Welfare is no longer a specific program, but a catch-all phrase that generally includes Social Security/disability/supplemental security income; Medicare; Medicaid; SNAP; Federal housing assistance; and TANF. TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, is a cash assistant program for very low income families.

Undocumented immigrants, or immigrants who are otherwise in the country illegally receive none of these benefits except emergency medical care, i.e. Medicaid. They can also receive public education, emergency services such as law-enforcement fire departments, and ambulance response as well as certain community programs, such as food banks and emergency shelter. Services that are generally offered by nonprofit, non-governmental organizations.

Claims that legal immigrants are “bankrupting” welfare and the social safety net are not supported by the overall evidence. In most analyses, legal immigrants use many major benefits at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens, face eligibility restrictions, and also pay substantial taxes that help fund the same programs.

Key realities (what tends to be true)

• Eligibility is limited-especially at first. Many federal means tested benefits - benefits given only two people who fall below certain income or resource limits - are restricted for many lawful permanent residents during their first 5 years (and some categories are excluded longer or entirely). That alone caps near term program impact.

• Big ticket programs aren’t “welfare.” The largest safety net and social insurance programs are typically:

  • Social Security & Medicare are benefits that are tied to work history and payroll taxes and are ‘earned’.

  • Medicaid is based on need, but eligibility varies and is restricted for many immigrants.

  • Native-born citizen Medicaid usage averages $1,710

  • Foreign-born immigrants, legal or undocumented, average $1,596

Undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible for full Medicaid, but they are eligible for emergency Medicaid care which is a small slice of total Medicaid: 3.8 billion in FY 2023, which seems huge, but is a mere 0.4% of total Medicaid spending.

Overall, immigrants are not a primary driver of safety net budget pressure. Major drivers are typically healthcare cost, population aging, and program design, not benefit used by legal immigrants.

Why is this so confusing? Is one side or the other lying? Well...figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.

A common statistical trick to make immigrant use look larger than it is is to compare household usage vs individual usage. Immigrant households can contain U.S. citizen children who are fully eligible for benefits. So it is easy to say that an “immigrant household” is receiving benefits and be telling the truth. But the intentional implication is that immigrants are receiving benefits. And that’s simply not true. The American citizen who is part of that household is the only person receiving benefits. So to include immigrant households - households in which no actual immigrant is actually receiving benefits - dramatically inflates the number.

Bottom line: If you’re the Sergeant Joe Friday type of famed television show Dragnet, and you want, “Just the facts and nothing but the facts” here you go: The average native born citizen usage of all social “welfare” programs - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI- Supplemental Security Income, TANF - Temporary Aid to Needy Families, WIC - Women Infants Children, and EITC, Earned Income Tax Credit, for native born citizens is $10,772. For immigrants, both lawful and undocumented, the usage is $5,063.

The weeds: If you really want to get down in the weeds and your eyeballs are not yet exhausted, I asked Bill Hyde, a good friend and hiking partner of mine who is a PhD economist and pre-retirement, was an economics faculty member at a major university, if he could boil this down so that somebody on my level might be able to understand it. And since I am sure that not everyone understands GDP, I’ll explain it here. It’s simple. It was only a few years ago when I stopped pretending that I knew what it meant and actually looked it up. Possibly I’m the only person who didn’t know. Bill makes it simple enough for even me to understand.

GDP is the value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders, US borders in this case.

Immigration effect on the US economy

We can begin with the general observation that there has been a surge in the foreign born population in the US over the last 30 years. Nobody denies that. But it is important to note that the foreign born share of the US population today is approximately the same as it was in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries. Going back 100 years would not change the immigrant share of the US population.

The more fundamental question in the minds of many has to do with the contribution—or the burden—of the immigrant population. There seems to be some political doubt about this, but the objective evidence is that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, make positive and significant contributions to the aggregate national economy and to national, state, and local tax revenues. Moreover, immigrants assimilate and, interestingly, they assimilate faster in the US than they do in Western European countries. Immigrants and their children seek graduate school education at a greater rate than natural born Americans, they are more innovative and, while their labor is more specialized, their overall contribution increases US labor productivity.

But this is all very general. Let’s consider some reliable objective numbers. Any web search will turn up numerous different reports—but most provide very similar numbers. I’ll rely on four sources: the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the George W Bush Institute, the Cato Institute, and the US House Committee on the Budget. The staff of the first two are majority Republican. The Cato Institute is explicitly Libertarian. I don’t think anyone would accuse any of these three of being madly liberal! All three report similar numbers. They rely on similar US government data. The fourth source, the US House Committee on the Budget, with a majority Republican staff, reports the same numbers but its Republican leadership adds a stress on the negative—and I’ll summarize that too.

The CBO projects that immigrants will spend an average of $300 billion annually over the ten-year period 2024-2034. As a result, the growth rate for real GDP for this period will be 0.2%/year greater than it would have been without the immigration. Real GDP growth has been in the neighborhood of 2-2.3% annually. If this continues, that 2-2.3% means that 8.7-10% of US growth until 2034 will be due to the immigrant work force.

These are the CBO projections with the US work force before current, 2025-26, detention and removal of immigrant labor. A similar projection of real US GDP without immigrant labor would be a phenomenal (my term) 7% smaller. 7% is 1/14, or growth in GDP would be 1/14 smaller.

Immigrants pay approximately 90 billion/year in taxes—which decreases the annual US federal debt by a similar amount. Most of these taxes are deducted automatically from immigrant paychecks. Immigrants pay social security and Medicare, both deducted from their paychecks and they pay property taxes and sales taxes. Of course, undocumented immigrants pay into social security, but do not collect social security upon retirement. A net gain for the American citizen taxpayer.

Immigrants pay property taxes directly if they own or indirectly if they rent. Sales taxes are paid on consumption. The poor consume a larger share of their income than the wealthy. Wealthier members of our society save more and consume less. Therefore, immigrants, who tend to be lower income, pay more than their proportional share of sales taxes.

Most expect that immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits, although the House Committee on the Budget argues that immigrants pay only approximately $10 billion/yr in local taxes (mostly property taxes), while their local tax burden is $19 billion/yr. Most of the difference is due to the costs of primary and secondary education—largely in urban areas (mostly Democratic cities which are not the usual concern of the Republican-led House Committee on the Budget). Of course, this education cost is a short-term effect, because immigrant children are more likely than non-immigrant children to continue to graduate education where they become greater than average contributors to the aggregate economy.

The largest share of immigrant labor is concentrated in the agriculture, construction, and hospitality sectors where it probably has a small decreasing effect on the average wage of low-income US-born workers. However, there is little evidence that foreign born workers replace US-born workers. And, since foreign-born workers do not replace many-US born workers, agricultural in particular would suffer. Immigrant labor provides 40-65% of the US ag work force. Without foreign born ag workers, getting crops picked on time—or at all—would be a problem. (We observe that already for some crops and also for meat packing.) With less production, food prices would rise. Therefore, with fewer immigrant ag workers we can expect a rise in core inflation. Not my projection, but I agree.

Adding it all up:

It’s complicated for sure. The ancestors of each of us was an immigrant. The internet gives a solid overall thumbs up to what immigrants add to this country:

· Immigrants raise overall economic output: More workers and consumers increases total production and demand, supporting business growth and job creation across supply chains.

· Help keep the workforce younger: Because many arrive in working ages, they partially offset U.S. aging and strengthen the worker-to-retiree balance.

· Support public finances: Legal immigrants pay payroll and income taxes; many contribute to Social Security and Medicare, including people who pay in for years before receiving benefits (or never qualify).

· Drive entrepreneurship: Immigrants are more likely to start businesses, which creates jobs and expands local tax bases.Boost innovation: A significant share of U.S. patents, research talent, and high-growth tech activity involves immigrants, raising productivity and competitiveness.

· Strengthen U.S. global ties: Diaspora networks can expand exports, investment, and talent pipelines, improving U.S. trade and business connections.

· Revitalize places losing population: Immigration can stabilize school enrollment, housing demand, and local Main Street economies in many regions.

Ronald Reagan, a smooth talking actor/politician, was by far not my favorite president. And when he spoke of immigrants in his last speech from the oval office, it’s impossible for me to know if he was acting or if he was being sincere. But either way, his words hit the nail on the head:

Since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it’s fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said:

“You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.’‘

Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it’s the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America’s triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on earth comes close.

This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people -- our strength -- from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation.

While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.

A number of years ago, an American student traveling in Europe took an East German ship across the Baltic Sea. One of the ship’s crew members from East Germany, a man in his sixties, struck up a conversation with the American student. After a while the student asked the man how he had learned such good English. And the man explained that he had once lived in America.

He said that for over a year he had worked as a farmer in Oklahoma and California, that he had planted tomatoes and picked ripe melons. It was, the man said, the happiest time of his life.

Well, the student, who had seen the awful conditions behind the Iron Curtain, blurted out the question, ``Well, why did you ever leave?’‘ ... ``I had to,’‘ he said, ``the war ended.’‘ The man had been in America as a German prisoner of war.

Now, I don’t tell this story to make the case for former POW’s. Instead, I tell this story just to remind you of the magical, intoxicating power of America. We may sometimes forget it, but others do not. Even a man from a country at war with the United States, while held here as a prisoner, could fall in love with us. Those who become American citizens love this country even more. And that’s why the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp to welcome them to the golden door.

It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, they make it come true for themselves, for their children, and for others.

They give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. And often they are entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American. They renew our pride and gratitude in the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world -- the last, best hope of man on Earth

---

We are living in a super critical time. We have an administration trying hard to pit friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor, and American against American. There is a ton of noise out there and it’s hard to know where to turn, what to do, what to read, or what to listen to. I get it. I’m in that same boat. We are working really hard to keep the boat pointed in the right direction. We are not a perfect country. But we’re a better country than the one the current administration envisions. If you are able, please click the link below and help us in this important effort. Thank you.

Wayne

Sources for crime stats:

· https://www.alexnowrasteh.com/p/immigrants-have-lower-lifetime-incarceration

· https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/illegal-immigrant-incarceration-rates-2010-2024-demographics-american-imprisonment

· https://www.ctdata.org/blog/ice-apprehensions-and-deportations-data-update

· https://deportationdata.org/analysis/immigration-enforcement-first-nine-months-trump.html

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States

· https://stateline.org/2026/02/05/immigration-detention-passed-70000-in-january/

· https://tracreports.org/whatsnew/email.260217.html

· https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/

· https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/

· https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/four-migrants-die-us-ice-custody-over-first-10-days-2026-2026-01-12/

· https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-arrested-nearly-75000-people-no-criminal-records-data-shows-rcna247377

· https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/courts-have-ruled-4400-times-that-ice-jailed-people-illegally-it-hasnt-stopped-2026-02-14/

· https://www.reuters.com/world/eleven-people-died-us-immigration-custody-this-year-ice-says-2026-03-19/

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_in_ICE_detention

· https://newbedfordlight.org/new-bedford-immigrants-describe-inhumane-conditions-at-detention-facilities/

· https://tracreports.org/reports/767/

· https://deportationdata.org/analysis/immigration-enforcement-first-nine-months-trump.html

· https://deportationdata.org/news/2026-02-17-update-ICE-removals.html

·

Sources for welfare

· https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-modernizing-immigration-system-stronger-america/

· https://www.rev.com/transcripts/donald-trump-immigration-speech-transcript-august-18-yuma-arizona

· https://www.rev.com/transcripts/donald-trump-immigration-speech-transcript-august-18-yuma-arizona

· https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/08/14/2019-17142/inadmissibility-on-public-charge-grounds

· https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-taking-action-protect-social-safety-net-promote-self-sufficiency-non-citizens/

· https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-says-new-immigration-proposal-puts-wages-safety-americans-first-n1006556

· https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility/non-citizen?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/5-key-facts-about-immigrants-and-medicaid/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.factcheck.org/2025/05/a-false-claim-about-illegal-immigration-and-medicaid/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/pdf_notes/note151.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60569?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/08/14/2019-17142/inadmissibility-on-public-charge-grounds?utm_source=chatgpt.com

· https://www.nilc.org/resources/overview-immeligfedprograms/

· https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-does-immigration-on-net-increase-the-national-debt

· https://usafacts.org/articles/immigrant-program-eligibility/

· https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61464

Sources for ‘other’

· https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fact-check-trump-vs-obama-151300082.html

· https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-trump-obama-immigration-ice-death-deportation/a-75895526

· https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-trump-obama-immigration-ice-death-deportation/a-75895526

· https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fact-check-trump-vs-obama-151300082.html