The current government shutdown has brought unexpected clarity to a long-obscured issue: the extent to which federal nutrition assistance programs have been extended to noncitizens.
As Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits face interruption due to the shutdown, reporting has revealed that approximately 90,000 noncitizens will lose SNAP access not from the funding lapse, but from provisions in recently passed legislation that narrows eligibility requirements for the program.
The facts are these: Democrats rejected more than a dozen attempts to pass a continuing resolution that would have kept the government funded during appropriations negotiations. The resulting shutdown has placed SNAP benefits in jeopardy beginning Saturday. Yet amid the coverage of this disruption, Americans are learning for the first time the degree to which their tax dollars have supported noncitizen food assistance.
Recent reporting detailed the case of Antoinette, a noncitizen from the Democratic Republic of Congo who requires a French translator and has been receiving SNAP benefits. When asked about the program changes, she expressed concern about her ability to purchase food without taxpayer support.
The reporting outlined how the system has functioned: “Once they arrive — often with little or no means — the federal government provides resources such as financial assistance, Medicaid and SNAP, outreach that has typically garnered bipartisan support.”
The new legislation removes SNAP eligibility for most refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking and domestic violence victims, and other legal immigrants. The changes will affect approximately 90,000 individuals in an average month.
The scope of this spending is considerable. According to a February 2024 Department of Health and Human Services report, federal, state and local spending on refugees and asylum seekers, including food, health care, education, and other expenses, totaled $457.2 billion from 2005 to 2019. During that period, 21 percent of refugees and asylum seekers received SNAP benefits, compared with 15 percent of all U.S. residents.
These revelations arrive at a moment when Americans are already questioning federal spending practices. The current administration’s efforts to identify waste and inefficiency in government programs have heightened public awareness of how taxpayer dollars are allocated.
The bipartisan nature of these policies deserves examination. Politicians from both parties have supported expansive welfare provisions for noncitizens over many years, creating a system whose full extent remained largely unknown to the American public until now.
The shutdown, while disruptive, has served an unintended purpose. It has illuminated aspects of federal spending that warrant serious scrutiny and debate. Whether one supports or opposes assistance to noncitizens, the American people deserve a clear accounting of how their tax dollars are spent and who benefits from federal programs.
That is the way it is.
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