UNITED States President Donald Trump has claimed that roughly 33.3 per cent of Nigerian immigrant households in the United States receive some form of public assistance.
A chart circulated by Trump and titled “Immigrant Welfare Recipient Rates by Country of Origin,” profiles immigrants from about 120 countries and territories, and details the share of households that receive public assistance such as food support, healthcare benefits, and other welfare programmes.
Trump shared the chart on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, as Republicans renewed their focus on immigration policy, welfare dependency, and the economic impact of immigrants on US domestic politics.
According to the data, countries with the highest reported rates of welfare participation among immigrants include Bhutan at 81.4 per cent, Yemen at 75.2 per cent, Somalia at 71.9 per cent, the Marshall Islands at 71.4 per cent, the Dominican Republic, and Afghanistan both at 68.1 per cent, and Nigeria is listed at 33.3 per cent, placing it closer to the middle of the chart.
The data include Bermuda, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Korea, and Kenya, which are the countries with the lowest welfare participation rates for immigrants, with figures ranging from about 25 to 29 per cent.
Trump’s post comes amid continued efforts by his administration to present access to public benefits as a central factor in determining immigration policies and eligibility criteria.
Throughout 2025, the administration repeatedly argued that welfare usage should be factored into decisions on who is allowed to enter or remain in the United States.
In June 2025, the White House unveiled a presidential proclamation imposing full and partial travel bans on several countries, citing security risks, weak identity management systems, and limited cooperation with US immigration authorities.
The restrictions were extended in late December 2025 through a revised proclamation effective January 1. The US widened the scope to 39 countries, which included Nigeria alongside several other African and Caribbean nations, with Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria, being on the full ban list.
The partial restrictions limit access to immigrant visas as well as several non-immigrant visa categories, including student (F), vocational (M), and exchange (J) visas.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.