Rand Paul: End federal welfare for refugees, let churches, families sponsor instead

About 85% of Somali refugees are still on welfare

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has suggested that churches and family members of refugees could sponsor and fund people's relocations, as he calls for an end to federal welfare benefits for refugees, some of whom remain on benefits long-term.

Paul appeared on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” Tuesday to discuss separate lawsuits filed by major American cities and 22 states over a pending rule that seeks to prevent immigrants who would be dependent on government assistance from entering the U.S. 

“We actually have laws on the books that [say] if you come here illegally, you’re not supposed to be eligible for a host of welfare programs for five years,” Paul said. 

“Some of the [ways] that people have gotten around this is by coming [on] refugee status,” he added. Paul noted that refugees are exempt from the federal government’s five-year waiting period for certain means-tested benefits and cited statistics showing that about 85% of Somali refugees who went on welfare when entering the U.S. are still on welfare before calling for changes to federal law.

Paul highlighted legislation he introduced that would “eliminate all welfare for refugees.” The bill, titled the End Welfare for Noncitizens Act, would prohibit the use of federal funds to provide benefits to refugees, asylees and illegal immigrants from obtaining federal funds under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

Paul insisted that under the bill, “You can still come to this country, have someone sponsor you, have a church sponsor you and they take care of you.” He mentioned another option would be to “have a family member sponsor you and they take care of you. That’s the way it historically was. That’s the way it should be.”

“We should not have any welfare for immigrants, and it should not be a beacon to the world to come here and get free stuff,” he proclaimed. Paul also discussed documented welfare fraud before characterizing the welfare system in the U.S. as a “terrible system” where “the federal government funds it and the state governments police it,” asking, “if you’re policing something you don’t pay for, do you really care if it’s wasted?”

Paul accused Democrat-run states of using the welfare system to “bribe people to get their vote.” According to Paul, “They say ‘here, you can all have welfare and we’re not going to check to see whether you need it or not or whether you’re stealing it because Uncle Sam, the federal taxpayer, is going to pay for it.’”

Paul asserted that the federal government should shift responsibility for both funding and oversight of welfare programs to the states.

“I propose that we shift this all back to the states so that the payment and the policing would be at the state and they would bankrupt themselves if they didn’t police the system,” he said.

While Paul’s bill itself hasn't received a vote in the Senate, Paul previously offered an amendment that would have eliminated funding for refugee and entrant assistance. The amendment was rejected in the Senate.

Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting an amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 that would have eliminated funding for refugee and entrant assistance. 

Paul’s appearance on “The Will Cain Show” and his push for an overhaul of the welfare system, along with his call for churches and families to assume responsibility for sponsoring refugees, come as a new rule published in the Federal Register is slated to take effect Friday.

The rule seeks to reverse a Biden-era policy that the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleges “limited the public benefits that DHS could consider in a public charge inadmissibility.”

Federal law declares that “Any alien who, in the opinion of the consular officer at the time of application for a visa, or in the opinion of the Attorney General at the time of application for admission or adjustment of status, is likely at any time to become a public charge is inadmissible.” 

A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday by New York City, Chicago, Santa Clara County, California, San Francisco, Seattle and King County, Washington, alleges that the new rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and would have adverse economic impacts. The plaintiffs are seeking to have the rule set aside.

The states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin as well as the District of Columbia filed a separate lawsuit making similar allegations in the same court Monday. Both complaints are asking for a federal court to set aside the new rule. 

In a statement posted on X Monday, DHS reacted to the lawsuits by asserting that “Sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs.”

Condemning the “ideological contortion required by left-wing leaders to justify their defrauding of the American taxpayer at the hands of illegal criminals,” DHS stated that it had “heard for months that illegal aliens weren’t using these very same programs” before asking, “Which is it?”