The Trump administration is working to eliminate the monetary incentive for foreign nationals to steal into the country and to pressure noncitizens presently exploiting citizen supports to wean off or get packing.
Pursuant to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now taking steps to ensure that illegal aliens cannot get their hands on food stamps.
“President Trump has made it clear that American taxpayers will no longer subsidize illegal aliens,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a Thursday statement.
“We are stewards of taxpayer dollars, and it is our duty to ensure states confirm the identity and verify the immigration status of SNAP applicants,” continued Rollins. “USDA’s nutrition programs are intended to support the most vulnerable Americans. To allow those who broke our laws by entering the United States illegally to receive these benefits is outrageous.”
The USDA issued guidance on Thursday to state SNAP agencies nationwide setting out the minimum expectations for eligibility verification to prevent “ineligible aliens” from participating in the program.
Only American citizens and certain lawfully present noncitizens, including individuals granted asylum, are eligible for SNAP benefits. However, the U.S Government Accountability Office noted in a September 2024 report that an estimated 11.7% or $10.5 billion of SNAP benefits paid out by the USDA in fiscal year 2023 “were the wrong amount or otherwise should not have been made.”
The report indicated that “states made improper payments related to SNAP mainly because they did not verify recipients’ eligibility for program benefits.” States apparently often failed to verify whether recipients were citizens or lawfully present noncitizens.
The Center for Immigration Studies revealed in a December 2023 report that 48% of “illegal-headed households” used food welfare programs.
‘Taxpayer-funded benefits should be only for eligible taxpayers.’
As of 2022, American taxpayers were on the hook for at least $182 billion annually to provide services and benefits to illegal aliens and their dependents, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The new USDA guidance requires state agencies to:
- verify the identity of the applicant, ideally before confirming their immigration status;
- collect and verify Social Security numbers for all household members applying for SNAP benefits;
- compare SSNs to the Social Security Agency’s Death Master File database and ensure the SSN belongs to the applicant; and
- check alien applications against the Department of Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification System for Entitlements — which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem advised governors last week is now available to states for free — to ensure eligibility.
The guidance provided other recommendations and advised state agencies that the Food and Nutrition Service “will assess the effectiveness of identity and immigration status verification practices in regular management evaluations for program compliance.”
The USDA issued the new guidance just a week after Trump issued a memo directing his administration to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving taxpayer funds from Social Security Act programs, including Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Blaze News previously reported that the memo directed the Social Security Administration to expand its fraud prosecutor programs, investigate earning reports of individuals supposedly 100 years or older with mismatched records, consider reinstating its civil monetary penalty program, and reinforce program integrity measures so only eligible foreign nationals can receive benefits.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on April 15, “These taxpayer-funded benefits should be only for eligible taxpayers.”
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