More than half of immigrant households in the U.S. use welfare, costing taxpayers billions and making the programs less sustainable for Americans in need. Blame birthright citizenship for a big part of the cost, but don't count on the Supreme Court to fix it.

Republicans in Congress need to act, and they should do it quickly while they're still in the majority.

Federal law bars legal immigrants from taking welfare benefits until they've been in the country five years, and bars illegal immigrants from benefits completely. But both groups manage to circumvent that law and qualify for a wide range of costly handouts, including subsidized housing, Medicaid, and food assistance.

The biggest loophole is that they can take benefits on behalf of their American-born children, who are citizens because of birthright citizenship.

Last week, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara – the birthright citizenship case – they were emphatic that their ruling would rest on history and legal precedent, not modern-day problems.

When President Donald Trump's solicitor general D. John Sauer argued that we are living in a "new world" with immigration laws and problems such as birth tourism and illegal border crossings, Chief Justice John Roberts snapped back that the world may be new, but it's "the same........

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