Trump Admin Gets Backlash Over Policy Linking Food Stamps to Immigration Status: Report

The Trump administration is facing criticism after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told senior staff at the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) “to use all available legal authority to end any incentives in FNS benefit programs that encourage illegal immigration.”

The directives are part of a recent memo reported by The Guardian in which Rollins also says that “the days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over.” The report by the news outlet also cites several critics of such measures which warn this could create confusion and fear among immigrant communities, potentially reducing participation in food assistance programs even among eligible recipients.

The memo itself, dated February 25, emphasizes the administration’s commitment to “program integrity” and compliance with the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

In that regard, the memo does not change eligibility rules, but analysts argue that the messaging alone can lead to a chilling effect, deterring participation among immigrant and mixed-status families.

“It’s posturing to try to harm communities,” said Juan Carlos Gomez of the Center for Law and Social Policy (Clasp), pointing out that undocumented immigrants have long been ineligible for SNAP and that even legal immigrants must typically wait five years before applying. “That nugget of misinformation from the secretary is like a seed that will continue to grow,” Gomez added.

Even though other FNS programs such as the National School Lunch Program and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) do not have citizenship requirements, Emily Loveland, a professor at California State University, noted to The Guardian that the administration might seek to restrict access to these programs as well, saying that “it really feels like immigrant families are being targeted to have food taken away from their plates.”

Back in February 19, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to “identify all federally funded programs currently providing financial benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action.” He also added that:

“My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans”

Though the order cites estimates of costs associated with undocumented immigrants, research cited by NPR shows that noncitizen immigrants consume significantly less in welfare benefits than native-born Americans.

Recent research from the Cato Institute also found that noncitizen immigrants, including those unlawfully present, “consume 54% less welfare than native-born Americans”:

“We find that all immigrants consumed 21 percent less welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans on a per capita basis in 2022, based on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Immigrants were 14.3 percent of the US population and consumed just 11.9 percent of all means-tested welfare and entitlement benefits that year”

The Trump administration has not specified which benefits will be targeted, but critics fear the directive will prompt reduced participation in safety net programs. “Rhetoric matters a lot for people’s actual behavior,” said economist Chloe East to The Guardian. “”Even households with US citizen kids in them will be less likely to receive SNAP because the parents are afraid it might impact their immigration status or it might lead to a deportation.”