According to an annual report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), between 1.47 million and 1.86 million noncitizens have been eligible to receive food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This has cost American taxpayers nearly $3 billion annually.
Among the noncitizens who have been eligible to receive food stamps under this program are refugees, people who have been granted asykym, people with their deportation withheld, green casrd hodlers, and more. A USDA spokesperson clarified to The Center Square that “only US citizens and certain lawfully present non-citizens may receive SNAP benefits.”
“SNAP is not and has never been available to undocumented non-citizens. Non-citizens like tourists and students are generally not eligible. Non-citizens who are eligible based on their immigration status must meet SNAP eligibility requirements, such as income and resource limits, and may also need to meet a waiting period,” the spokesperson added.
SNAP serves over 41 million participants annually, with benefits totaling around $90 billion. The latest data indicates that in 2022, 1.46 million noncitizens received SNAP benefits, costing $2.95 billion. This is slightly lower than the 1.44 million noncitizens on SNAP in 2019, but higher than the 1.86 million in 2015.
This report comes as an overwhelming number of Americans favor some sort of measures to reduce the number of non-citizens in the country. A recent poll from TPUSA found that 87 percent of Americans believe that the US should deport all illegal immigrants. About 29 percent of those that agreed currently reside in a state thaty is along the US-Mexico border.
