A shocking new report is revealing that millions of noncitizens were given U.S. Social Security numbers under the Biden administration. According to a report from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), over two million noncitizens were issued Social Security numbers (SSNs) last fiscal year alone.

In fiscal year 2021, 270,425 noncitizens were given SSNs, 590,193 in fiscal year 2022, 964,163 in fiscal year 2023, and slightly over two million in fiscal year 2024, for a total of nearly four million noncitizens who were handed SSNs under the Biden administration. Nearly one million noncitizens have been given SSNs during fiscal year 2025, although President Donald Trump’s administration has put a halt to the process since taking office in late January. DOGE officer Antonio Gracias also reported that approximately 1.3 million noncitizens were receiving Medicaid benefits and many were registered to vote and had already voted.

While the DOGE report did not confirm how many of the noncitizens given SSNs or using benefits like Medicaid are illegal immigrants, Gracias did detail how illegal immigrants were able to obtain SSNs under the Biden administration. He explained that illegal immigrants who were released or “paroled” into the U.S. after claiming asylum at the border could “apply for a work document. You file a 765, it’s the work form. You get this form called the 766, that’s the authorization, and then the Social Security Administration automatically sends you in the mail your Social Security number.” He added that “no interview, no I.D.” is required.

As The Washington Stand previously reported, it’s estimated that the American taxpayer spends roughly $3 billion annually on welfare benefits for illegal immigrants and over $160 billion providing Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants over the course of the Biden administration’s tenure.

In comments to TWS, Center for Immigration Studies research director Steven Camarota revealed, “The bottom line is that illegal immigrants do get Social Security numbers for a variety of reasons, and two million is probably low.” He explained, “Certainly the Biden administration has given out more than two million work authorization documents, which include Social Security numbers, to more than two million people: asylum applicants, parolees, and various other categories.”

Camarota said that although the intention in providing illegal immigrants with legal work authorization is supposedly to collect taxes from them, the system ends up benefitting them far more than it does the U.S. “It’s a low income population. A valid Social Security number often allows them to receive other benefits, so if the goal is to save money, then it’s not clear that giving a population that’s heavily less educated work authorization fulfills that goal,” the immigration researcher explained. He continued, “The educational attainment of parolees is relatively — well, as you might guess. As a group, as best I can tell, about 25% don’t even have the equivalent of a high school education. And so that’s what’s going to drive the costs. I estimate that around 61% of parolees may not have any education beyond high school.”

“About 50% of the primary parolees entering the country get access to the welfare system. That is, they either get cash, food stamps, or Medicaid. So it’s significant,” Camarota explained. Different demographics of illegal immigrants rely on U.S. welfare to varying degrees, he said, with those from some countries only using welfare in 10% of cases and those from other countries as much as nearly 90% of the time. Camarota continued, “The only thing to say here is, overall, it looks like their welfare use rates are high. Remember, the use rate of welfare for the native-born is high, it’s 28%. Immigrants are a lot higher.”

Camarota added that a substantial portion of illegal immigrants who do have SSNs have annual incomes so low and so many dependents that they qualify for the earned income tax credit (EITC), effectively avoiding paying federal income taxes. Where roughly 10% of U.S. households even qualify for the EITC, Camarota estimated that at least 40% of illegal immigrant households not only qualified for but took advantage of the program.

“Keep in mind, these are not people who are necessarily gaming the system,” Camarota observed. He continued, “They’re very often eligible for these benefits because they have parole, because they have U.S.-born children, because they have work authorization and Social Security numbers. That’s the point: we’ve created a system like this, and they’re using it.”

Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, noted that asylum applicants can legally obtain work authorization five months after filing for asylum, regardless of whether or not they’ve been granted asylum. The process to be granted asylum may take years. “There’s no filing fee for asylum applications — meaning there is literally no cost involved in applying. This creates a huge incentive for inadmissible aliens to file fraudulent asylum applications to gain U.S. work authorization,” Ries explained. She added, “In other words, individuals can fraudulently apply for asylum and then receive work authorization shortly after, safe in the knowledge that their asylum application may not be decided for years.”

“Congress should legislate the principle that immigration benefit applicants (including those receiving asylum) may not receive work authorization until the underlying benefit (e.g., asylum) is granted, not just filed,” Ries observed, suggesting that asylum applicants should seek sponsors in the U.S. to fund their stay until their asylum claims are approved. She continued, “Congress should also enact anti-fraud asylum measures, which would significantly decrease the number of fraudulent asylum applications — and, by extension, would decrease the years-long wait for DHS and DOJ to adjudicate legitimate asylum applications.”