A Trump Immigration Policy Is Leaving Families Hungry

The Trump administration public charge rule had the impact of chilling immigrant use of public benefits for which they were lawfully entitled.  

Zolan Kanno-Youngs for the New York Times reports the President Trump’s public charge rule has adverse impacts on  the hungry in the era of economic hardship and the pandemic:

“Even with citizen children who clearly qualify for federal assistance, undocumented immigrant parents are eschewing programs like food stamps and are flocking to food pantries. That, in turn, is badly straining relief agencies and presenting a challenge to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who could confront rising hunger by expanding government programs but will not be able to quickly undo the Trump administration’s expansion of” the public charge rule. (bold added).

The story highlights that high level Trump administration officials knew full well — and in fact hoped — that the public charge rule would have chilling effects on the lawful use of public benefits by immigrants:

“The administration had . . . predicted the chilling effect. In the final rule, Kevin K. McAleenan, the acting homeland security secretary at the time, wrote that the policy might cause foreigners and American citizens in households with unauthorized immigrants `who may otherwise be eligible for public benefits’ to drop out of the programs. The agency estimated that could save the federal government nearly $2.5 billion annually.”

KJ