A prominent immigration expert tore into tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday for pushing a blatant falsehood that U.S. social assistance benefits are designed to attract illegal immigrants into the country.
Musk, who previously helped President Donald Trump run the Department of Government Efficiency task force to fire huge swathes of the federal workforce, made the comments to celebrity podcaster Joe Rogan in a recent interview, during which he made an eyebrow-raising claim about the real issue at the heart of the federal government shutdown.
"The reason you have the standoff is because if the hundreds of billions of dollars to create a financial incentive — to have this giant magnet to attract illegals from every part of Earth to these states — if that is turned off, the illegals will leave," said Musk. "Because they're no longer being paid to come to the United States and stay here."
None of that is true, senior American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted to Musk's X platform.
"This is just an utter lie," said Reichlin-Melnick. "Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program]. I have talked to many, many migrants over the years. Not a single one — zero, zip, nada — has said they came to get benefits. The entire idea is absurd. People are not DYING IN THE DESERT for SNAP."
Absent an end to the shutdown, SNAP is expected to hit a funding cliff over the weekend, terminating food assistance for millions of low-income families across the country. The Trump administration has so far refused to commit to releasing emergency funds to continue the program, although at the end of the week, two federal judges commanded him to do so.
