President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to “make America wealthy again” by no longer wasting U.S. taxpayers’ dollars on wasteful or ineligible programs. The president this week has bolstered American prosperity and helped secure the southern border by cutting off the flow of federal dollars to illegal immigrants, “to prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration to the United States.”

On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.” The order requires all federal agencies to identify every dollar spent on illegal immigrants through federally funded programs, including funds that support so-called “sanctuary” cities or states. It also calls for stricter eligibility verification to ensure benefits do not go to illegal immigrants due to an administrative oversight.

Those found guilty of violating the law will face federal prosecution. The executive order directs, “Agencies shall refer any improper receipt or use of [f]ederal benefits to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for appropriate action.”

The president’s order says it aims to assure taxpayer dollars do not “facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration, or abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”

President Trump’s latest immigration-themed executive order “represents another important step in his administration’s efforts to deter illegal immigration and protect the interests of the American people,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told The Washington Stand.

Ending the flow of taxpayer funds to illegal immigrants accomplishes two signature policies of the Trump-Vance administration: securing the southern border and prioritizing the finances of U.S. citizens over the federal bureaucracy, which often funnels middle-class paychecks to political activists at well-connected left-wing nonprofits. “As the new administration works to fulfill its promises to end illegal immigration and cut government waste and spending,” Stein remarked, President Trump’s Wednesday “executive order will help advance both goals.”

Big Costs

Allowing non-citizens access to a panoply of taxpayer-funded federal benefits has imposed massive costs on American citizens:

• “[T]he annual cost just to care for and house the known gotaways and illegal aliens who have been released into the country under Mayorkas’ leadership could cost as much as an astounding $451 billion,” according to a report issued by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee in November 2023.
• The legally mandated policy of underwriting medical emergencies for illegal immigrants via Medicaid alone cost U.S. taxpayers at least $16.2 billion during the Biden-Harris administration, according to an analysisfrom the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — a 124% increase over the first Trump administration.
• Providing federal welfare programs to an estimated one million illegal immigrants costs U.S. citizens $3 billion a year, according to an estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
• All told, U.S. “taxpayers pay $182 billion annually to provide services and benefits to illegal aliens and their dependents,” wrote Ira Mehlman of FAIR in 2023.

Illegal immigrants impose additional costs on taxpayers, since they are counted in the U.S. Census, which is then used to apportion federal funds, giving additional benefits to sanctuary cities and states.

Immigration reform advocates say these programs entice not just those seeking to work, but also foreigners looking for a free ride, to cross the southern border illegally. “It is clear that access to the vast array of public benefits that have been made available to illegal aliens has been a driving force behind years of record illegal immigration and the crushing burdens it has imposed on American taxpayers,” Stein told TWS. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants entered the United States during the Biden-Harris administration.

Ending Lawless Governance

President Trump said his executive order reintroduces the spirit of a law that is already on the books. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), signed in an election year by President Bill Clinton, states, “It is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.” The 1996 law allows states to exclude legal immigrants from federal benefits for five years after they become citizens. At the time, President Clinton announced he was “deeply disappointed” by this America-first proviso and would instruct federal immigration authorities to expedite processing for legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. 

“[I]n the decades since the passage of the PRWORA, numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress through that law,” stated President Trump.

The pool of those who enter the country illegally but who are deemed “qualified aliens” under federal law — and thus eligible for taxpayer-funded benefits — includes lawful permanent residents, refugees, those seeking asylum, and people paroled into the United States for one year or more under such programs as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The five-year waiting period can be waived for those who claim to be refugees — for instance, those from Afghanistan or Ukraine. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration unveiled a plan to “allow vulnerable Ukrainians, specifically activists, journalists and those who are part of the LGBTQ community, to safely enter the U.S.,” according to NBC News. The administration had already facilitated the entry of “[t]housands of vulnerable evacuated Afghans admitted on parole — including human rights defenders, women and children, LGBTQ individuals, and others,” testified Michael Breen of Human Rights First in October 2021.

As one of his last acts as a lame-duck president on January 10, Joe Biden had Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela, attempting to exempt 1.2 million people from President Trump’s deportations.

“Over the past four years, the Biden administration short-circuited laws intended to prevent illegal aliens from receiving public benefits through its rampant abuse of parole authority and unwarranted grants of Temporary Protected Status, thereby opening loopholes to provide them access to many benefit programs,” Stein told TWS. Wednesday’s executive action from the Trump administration “will save American taxpayers billions of dollars a year as every federal agency and department will be required to identify all federally funded programs currently providing any benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action.”

Defunding Sanctuary Cities

Wednesday’s executive order is the latest in a string of Trump-Vance administration actions designed to end the lax border policies of the previous four years, protect taxpayers, and stop sanctuary cities from subverting federal law.

For instance, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem recently announced the Trump administration had “clawed back the full payment” that “deep state activists” inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) unilaterally gave to house illegal immigrants at luxury hotels in New York City. “FEMA was funding the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to house Laken Riley’s killer.” While DHS said it had recouped $59 million in U.S. taxpayer funds, New York City said the feds reclaimed $80 million the city had used for those in the country illegally.

FEMA spent $1.4 billion on shelter and other services for illegal immigrants between December 2022 and last fall, even as the government neglected — or purposely refused to serve — American citizens in hurricane-ravaged Appalachian North Carolina and Floridians sporting a yard sign supporting President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

As the Trump administration cuts wasteful or illegal federal spending, he intends to divert the savings to U.S. citizens.

A White House fact sheet announcing the executive order states, “President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans.”