Of course, liberals omit the fact that the shutdown happened because Democrats refused to cut funding for illegal aliens. And as for children "going hungry," only about 4 percent of American households face what's called "food insecurity," which is not the same as hunger. These households already qualify for federal assistance programs. In reality, there is almost no true hunger in the United States.

If Democrats are truly concerned about these people, they shouldn't have allowed the government to shut down.

Moving from logic to data, liberal media claim that 89.4 percent of SNAP recipients are U.S.-born citizens and less than 11 percent are foreign-born, including 6.2 percent naturalized citizens, 1.1 percent refugees, and 3.3 percent other non-citizens (such as lawful permanent residents). Therefore, they say, Republicans are wrong to argue that benefits are going to illegals.

However, with statistics you must ask the right questions to get the right answers. The issue isn't just individual recipients; it's households. Illegal-alien parents can and do use their U.S.-born citizen children to qualify for benefits, and the numbers are staggering.

More than half of all illegal-immigrant households have at least one U.S.-born child through whom they can receive aid. Nearly 2.7 million households have at least one illegal head and one child, and more than 5.3 million U.S.-born children of illegal aliens hold Social Security numbers. The total estimated cost to American taxpayers of providing SNAP benefits to the children of illegal aliens is almost $5.8 billion.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, data from the 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) indicates that 54 percent of households headed by immigrants—including naturalized citizens, legal residents, and illegal immigrants, used one or more major welfare programs.

By comparison, 39 percent of U.S.-born households received such benefits. Among non-citizens, the rate rises to 59 percent, and for illegal immigrants, an estimated 59 percent use at least one welfare program. The American Enterprise Institute further reports that 59.4 percent of illegal-immigrant households receive welfare benefits, and compared to the U.S.-born, illegal-headed households use every major program at statistically higher rates, except for SSI, TANF, and housing.