Speaking ot Turning Point USA personality and podcaster Benny Johnson during a December 9 interview, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) finally said something that even many MAGA Republicans will agree with, arguing that immigrants, legal or not, should be forbidden from receiving any sort of welfare and indicating that he is moving to get legislation passed that will ban them from receiving it.
That came after Benny pressed him on the matter of America accepting migrants from Somalia, noting that they are largely incompatible with our country’s traditions and values. He said, “I like to use the 51st state rule, which is, if the country wouldn’t make a good 51st state, then why are you importing people from that country? If you were to bring Somalia over and just attach it to Florida, other Carolinas, would people want to visit? And the answer that has got to be ‘No.'” He added, after describing various problems with Somalia, “Is that compatible with Western civilization? The answer is, of course, ‘no,’ right, Senator?”
Responding, Sen. Paul argued that immigrants should be screened before entering the country and should not be able to receive welfare dollars. Beginning, he said, “Well, it also gets to a fundamental point of how you design your immigration system. So while I am for lawful immigration, I’m not for zero immigration, I think we should be selective in who the immigration is.”
Continuing, he noted that some visas are ok in that those they let in are coming here to build economic value, saying, “So I’ve often been, long been, a fan of the employment-based visas. They’re called EB visas EBV, so they’re one through five. They include, sometimes people who will bring a million dollars and create jobs. Some of them are doctors, some are engineers, some are nurses, and these are people we accept. But I would also say even people who don’t have education, that are hard workers, if you want to come and be a hard worker.”
That’s when he got to describing the welfare issue, saying that a “wall” needs to be built around the welfare programs so that aliens cannot access them. He said, “But that’s why we should have an absolute sort of wall around our welfare system. We give too much welfare to our own people, but we don’t need to be giving any welfare to people come to the country.”
Then, describing a way that the immigration problem could be fixed relatively easily, he said, “In fact, I’m a big believer in the sponsorship idea. If you come to this country, you should have a sponsor, and your sponsor takes care of you instead of putting them on Medicaid. No, your sponsor should pay for your health care. And that should be it. And that should be a limit. If you can’t find a sponsor, then guess what? We may not need another person here.”
Adding to that by again slamming those who are trying to enter America to take advantage of the welfare system, he said, “And I think there are ways we can make immigration much more self-sufficient and much more likely to bring in the best people. But if you’re coming in and you’re going to get put on Medicaid and you want food stamps, you need to stay where you are, you’re not going to you’re not an asset, you’re now a drain to our country.”
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Concluding, the senator explained that he is working on a legislative solution to this, saying, “So I think we need to reassess all these laws. My staff is looking at this currently, and we’re looking to see if there’s any more of these laws that we can restrict so there isn’t any beacon of welfare to come to our country.”
Watch him here:
BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul is crafting legislation to ban welfare for ALL immigrants, Says those who can’t afford to be here should stay home:
“My staff is looking at this to see if there’s any more laws we can restrict so there isn’t any beacon of welfare to come to our country.… pic.twitter.com/nxRDWUwDrf
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 9, 2025