Anchor Babies, Aweigh! Illegal Aliens Cash in on TANF Welfare Benefits

Illegal aliens are using their children to receive cash from a welfare program that Gov. Rick Scott is trying to tighten.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, the welfare program for families living in poverty, is accessible by illegal aliens on behalf of their U.S.-born children, ImmigrationReform.com reports.

On Sept. 8, the director in the Government Accountability Office that oversees TANF testified before Congress that the share of immigrant child-only families receiving TANF increased from 10.8 percent in 2000 to 19.1 percent in 2008. The number of child-only families was a whopping 50.5 percent of all TANF families in 2008, numbering 814,977.

That would mean that immigrant-status cases numbered about 155,660 families, according to ImmigrationReform.com.

Earlier this year, the Scott administration ordered that TANF applicants in Florida pass a drug test as a condition of receiving benefits. That order is being challenged in federal court by the ACLU.

Neither Scott spokesman Lane Wright nor Department of Children and Families spokesman Joe Follick were immediately available for comment on the illegal-alien issue.