Trump signs order banning illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits
Migrants argue with Panamanian National Border Service members as they try to cross the border between Panama and Costa Rica while trying to return to Venezuela at Paso Canoas between the Panama-Costa Rica border on Feb. 11, 2025. Dozens of Venezuelan migrants crossed the border from Costa Rica into Panama in a small caravan as they gave up the journey to the United States. / Credit: PAUL MONTENEGRO/AFP via Getty Images CNA Staff, Feb 20, 2025 / 13:55 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump on Wednesday night ordered the federal government to cease allowing taxpayer dollars to “facilitate” illegal immigration.
The president in his executive order directed that “taxpayer resources” and “taxpayer-funded benefits” should be blocked from going to “illegal aliens” and ordered that federal payments to states must not “facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration.”
The order also says taxpayer dollars should not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.” It further states that federal agencies should enhance their eligibility verifications “to the maximum extent possible” to ensure that tax-funded benefits are not directed toward illegal aliens.
“My administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” Trump said in the order.
The directive, which cites federal law forbidding illegal immigrants from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits, is the latest of numerous executive orders Trump has issued since taking office, many of which seek to fulfill campaign promises on immigration and other major issues.
Shortly after taking office last month, the president signed a series of executive orders on immigration, including several that put into motion his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations of people residing in the U.S. illegally.
Among the earlier orders were a declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, a reinstatement of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy from his previous term, and a designation of drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
In a Feb. 10 letter, Pope Francis urged the U.S. bishops to support vulnerable migrants, calling for humane treatment for those who “in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, [or] exploitation.”
The measures have also drawn rebukes from the U.S. bishops who have, both individually and as a group, criticized the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Timothy Broglio responded to Pope Francis’ recent letter to the bishops with a call for the Holy Father’s prayers.
“Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all,” the archbishop wrote to the pope.
Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, waded into the controversy last month when he suggested that U.S. bishops speaking out in support of migrants were “worried about their bottom line” instead of humanitarian concerns. The U.S. bishops receive $ 100 million from the federal government annually to help resettle and aid refugees and immigrants in the United States.
Responding in part to Vance, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez wrote earlier this month that the Catholic Church has been “a good partner” with the government in helping with immigration.
The Church “did not break the nation’s immigration system,” he said, “but every day we deal with the human damage caused by that broken system.”
