More than half of households headed by immigrants in the county illegally, or 62 percent, received welfare benefits in 2012, according to a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies. In the same time period, 49 percent of households headed by legal immigrants received welfare benefits, while 30 percent of households headed by natives received the same.
The report evaluates data from the Census Bureau and found that illegal immigrant households benefit mostly from food programs like food stamps and Medicaid through their native-born children.