Originally posted by muntus:
Originally posted by sigma:

Even the worst of statistics only put 1 in 4 illegal immigrants as receiving the benefit from government-sponsored welfare programs; the vast majority of that in aid to various walk-in clinics, not the type of welfare that most people think of. So at least 3 out of 4 aren't entering to abuse the dole at all, and probably much more don't intend to when entering but end up becoming one of that 1 in 4.

So, at best, you'd only have 25% "pack up and go" if there was no such spigot, and that's presuming that every single one of them decided to leave once welfare was no longer an option, which of course wouldn't happen, because even without welfare almost of them are still better off here than in Mexico.

1 in 6 American households receive benefit from the same welfare programs. And while they of course deserve those benefits, it's clear that illegals clearly aren't coming over here to abuse the current welfare system at significantly higher rates than even Americans themselves are.



You're not reading the statistics correctly. It's not 25% of illegals receive some sort of welfare, it's 25% of illegal alien households receive some sort of welfare. It's safe to assume that when the household leaves, it will have more than one person in it.



If there's, let's say, 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in the US, and 1 in 4 receive some sort of welfare, that's 3,000,000 people, right?

If there's, let's say, 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in the US, in a total of 6,000,000 "illegal alien households" (each illegal is paired with another) and 25% of those households receive welfare, that's 1,500,000 households with an average of 2 illegals in each of them -- a total of 3,000,000 people.

Put 10 illegals into a single household and you've got 1,200,000 illegal households -- if 25% of those households receive welfare, how many total illegals do you effect by stopping their services? 3 million again! You're still at 1 in 4.

Or you could say there's 12,000,000 illegal immigrant households (every illegal has their own unique household) encompassing 36,000,000 people (each illegal is paired to 2 legal citizens, i.e. a child and a spouse) and that 25% of those household receive welfare. You still only have 3,000,000 illegals on welfare (1 in 4), you just have an additional 6,000,000 citizens also getting that welfare. You do make a bigger impact on the welfare system if that family leaves, but you still don't change the fact that 1 in 4 equals 1 in 4.

Whether talking people or households, it's irrelevant as far as the overall percentage of the population that is being referred to (as long as your sample is large enough).

To further simplify, although one is more specific than the other, the statements "1 in 4 people" and "1 in 4 pairs of people" covers the same percentage of the population even though the groups may be different sizes (like 'individuals' and 'households')

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