EL PASO, TEXAS — The Trump administration published a notice in Thursday’s Federal Register that reinterprets a 1996 law to restrict some food aid programs to “qualified immigrants” – a category that includes people with “green cards,” refugees, asylees, but excludes some lawfully present immigrants such as people with temporary protected status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
A Protecting Immigrant Families coalition (PIF) analysis finds that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) notice:
- Restates current law barring both states and USDA from denying school meals to children based on immigration status
- Confirms a long-standing option under current law to provide or deny certain USDA Food and Nutrition Service programs, such as “WIC” (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which provides food aid and breastfeeding support to pregnant people, babies, and new moms) to immigrants who are not “qualified.”
- Designates payments to a number of USDA grantees, licensees, payees, and contractors, and sub-grantees and sub-contractors, including payments to food banks and businesses licensed to take SNAP payments, as “Federal public benefits” subject to immigrant eligibility restrictions.
Importantly, the PIF analysis finds that the notice itself does nothing to change eligibility for programs such as SNAP, WIC, and Summer EBT.
In response to the notice, the Protecting Immigrant Families coalition (PIF) released the following statement from its director, Adriana Cadena.
“Feeding a hungry child should be something we can all agree on – only this administration would turn it into an attack on immigrant families. This is yet another shameful scam from an administration that is disconnected from the needs of its people. The American people are vigilant of this betrayal and will hold the President accountable.”
