Nervous that applying for food stamps will hurt their immigration status or put them at risk of deportation, immigrants are dropping food relief services. “Officials at Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, Md., report that about 20 percent of the 561 families they have helped apply for food stamps, or SNAP benefits, in the past few months have asked that their cases be closed,” says NPR.
Undocumented parents, who can’t receive benefits themselves but are trying to feed their eligible children, are especially likely to cancel services. Permanent residents who are applying for citizens also worry that food stamps will hurt their chances of gaining citizenship. There’s no reason yet to believe that either of these fears is legitimate, but President Trump’s tough stance on immigration has made people concerned.
“Estimates of food insecurity in immigrant communities have varied widely, mostly between about 30 percent and 60 percent, but some estimates — as high as 80 percent — have been documented among farmworkers in the Southwest,” says The Huffington Post.