Do Lebanese Nationals Rely Heavily on US Public Welfare Programs?

WASHINGTON – On Jan. 14, the State Department announced that it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries, including Lebanon, claiming the nationals pose a “high risk” of relying on public welfare programs in the United States.

In a statement posted on X, the State Department said immigrants from the listed countries “take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.” The statement also said that the pause, which will begin on Jan. 21, will “remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.”

The measure builds upon previous immigration and travel bans imposed on nearly 40 countries and aligns with President Trump’s broader efforts to restrict entry into the United States. The suspension will not apply to applicants seeking temporary tourist or business visas, or other non-immigrant visas.

The justification for this suspension raises a key question: is there evidence that nationals from the 75 listed countries living in the US. rely disproportionately on public welfare programs?

Fact Check

A Feb. 18, 2025 article published by the Cato Institute found that, “all immigrants consumed 21 percent less welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans on a per capita basis in 2022, based on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).” Noncitizen immigrants, including those who are undocumented or on various temporary visas and green cards, consumed 54 percent less welfare than native-born Americans.

The article argues that one “tragedy” of the welfare state is that it pushes politicians and voters to view people as positive or negative based on their net contributions to the welfare state. Even as lower-skilled workers may consume more in welfare than they pay in taxes, it is wrong to overlook the valuable services they contribute, which are in high demand.

Cato scholars argue that, rather than restricting entry to the US or conducting mass deportations, the more fiscally responsible solution is to “build a higher wall around the welfare state.” The tenability of this solution may be debated, although the bottom line remains the same: immigrants in the US. are not disproportionately consuming welfare.

A Feb. 15, 2024 report published by the US Department of Health and Human Services more broadly assesses the fiscal impact of refugees and asylees at the federal, state and local levels. The report found that the net fiscal impact of refugees and asylees was positive between 2005 and 2019, at around $123.8 billion. This means that these populations contributed more revenue than they cost in expenditures to the government.

The report concludes that, when compared with the total US population on a per capita basis, refugees and asylees had a comparable net fiscal impact.

Applied to Lebanese Nationals

In a Jan. 4 post on his social media platform Truth Social, US President Donald Trump shared a list of 120 countries and regions whose immigrants reportedly receive the highest levels of government assistance in the US. This post notably excludes explanations of what welfare programs were assessed, how data was measured, the time period covered, or the source of the statistics.

Lebanon ranks 79th on the list, with a reported 36.9 percent rate of immigrant welfare recipients. There is no single publicly published federal statistic that supports this post by specifically reporting the rate of welfare receipt among Lebanese-born immigrants in the US, as US federal data sources do not generally produce welfare participation estimates broken down by specific country of birth, such as Lebanon, especially for smaller immigrant groups.

The 2020 US Census identified that the Lebanese population in the US stands at around 686,000 people, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the Arab population in the US. The estimated median household income of Lebanese in the US rests at $100,406 compared to an annual average of $69,658 for native-born Americans.

Reports from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S Department of Agriculture assessing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reveal that white people are the largest racial group receiving benefits. In 2023, 89.4 percent of SNAP recipients were US-born citizens. Similarly, 84.2 percent of 2023 Medicaid enrollees were born in the United States.

These statistics counter widely circulated claims that most public welfare recipients in the US are non-citizens or that people from specific countries dominate participation in these programs. Instead, the data shows that US citizens, particularly those born in the US, make up the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries, complicating the State Department’s claim that immigrants, including those from Lebanon, pose an outsized burden on the US welfare system.

As the pause on issuing immigrant visas to nationals of these 75 countries comes into effect, the gap between the policy’s stated rationale and existing data raise questions about whether the measure is truly grounded in fiscal concerns or is instead driven by more political factors.