An Arizona sheriff and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate claims in viral posts that the federal government is giving $5,000 gift cards to people who enter the U.S. illegally.
“So while this Christmas season, you’re struggling to keep your lights on, while you’re struggling to pay your rent, put Christmas presents under the tree for your kids, we have our government giving people that came into this country illegally $5,000 gift cards,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb says in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He also claims in the same video that people who enter the U.S. illegally are given a cell phone and a “plane ticket to wherever they want to go in this country.”
A VERIFY reader asked us whether Lamb’s claims about $5,000 gift cards, cell phones and plane tickets are true.
THE QUESTION
Does the federal government give people who enter the U.S. illegally $5,000 gift cards, cell phones and plane tickets to anywhere they want to go?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, the federal government does not give people who enter the U.S. illegally $5,000 gift cards, cell phones and plane tickets to anywhere they want to go.
WHAT WE FOUND
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and an immigration policy expert confirmed to VERIFY that Lamb’s claims about the federal government giving gift cards, cell phones and plane tickets to people who enter the U.S. illegally are false.
These claims are another iteration of a debunked rumor about cash assistance for migrants that’s circulated for years.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the agency “does not provide financial assistance” of any kind to undocumented families.
“Claims that migrants are provided plane tickets, cell phones, or gift cards by CBP are false,” the spokesperson said.
We fact-check each part of Lamb’s claim below in sections for clarity.
$5,000 gift cards
“There is simply no truth” to claims that migrants receive gift cards of any amount, let alone $5,000, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director with the American Immigration Council, told VERIFY.
“Migrants are generally not eligible for any cash assistance welfare programs, and there is certainly no program that provides gift cards,” he said.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) also said in a November 2022 report that, under federal law, people who enter the U.S. illegally are generally “not eligible for most federal benefits.”
This means they cannot receive non-emergency Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and Supplemental Security Income, either, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Cell phones
Some noncitizens who participate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs may receive devices that look like cell phones, but these devices have been “wiped clean of their cell phone functionality and reprogrammed into tracking devices,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
The devices only allow people to access an app called SmartLink that is used to monitor them after they cross the border.
“If an ATD participant does not have a personally owned mobile phone at the time of ATD enrollment, the participant will be issued a device capable solely of running the SmartLINK application,” ICE says on its website.
Reichlin-Melnick also said people who receive these devices cannot make calls, access the internet or use it for anything other than running the SmartLink app.
Plane tickets anywhere they want to go
It is “simply false to suggest that migrants are handed plane tickets by the federal government,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
The federal government sometimes transports migrants around the country for various purposes, as required under federal law. This includes uniting unaccompanied children with their families or sponsors. Adult migrants are sometimes transported from one U.S. detention center to another, or between U.S. cities when immigration authorities order their deportation.
But federal agencies, such as CBP and ICE, do not give anyone a free plane ticket to any destination they choose in the U.S.
“The overwhelming majority of migrants who cross the border are required to pay for their own travel away from the border to their own destination. Most often, family and friends in the United States pay for these tickets,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
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