Majorities of Americans may tell pollsters they support the idea of giving citizenship to illegal immigrants, but a new poll from National Journal suggests that may change as they are better informed about what the immigration legislation currently being debated in Congress really does.
According to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, 77 percent of Americans oppose giving government benefits, like food stamps and Medicaid, to illegal immigrants before they become citizens. Not only do 90 percent of Republicans oppose such a policy, but 65 percent of Democrats do as well.
Unfortunately for supporters of the Schumer-Rubio immigration legislation, that is exactly what the bill does according to the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO’s Cost Estimate of S. 744 reads:
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did offer an amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee that would have clearly prohibited all illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship from receiving any federal, state, or local benefits. Senate Democrats and pro-amnesty Republicans joined to defeat that amendment.
As a result, according to the CBO, Schumer-Rubio would result in $82.3 billion more Obamacare subsidy spending, $29.3 billion more in Medicaid spending, $6 billion more in food stamp spending, $5.1 billion more in unemployment insurance spending and $3.5 billion more in child nutrition spending. Newly legalized immigrants would also be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which would cost the federal government an additional $126.8 billion.
