Trump To Stop SNAP To Dem States Covering Up Welfare Fraud

The Trump administration announced that it will soon stop food stamp funding to 21 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., because they refuse to provide data about recipients, choosing instead to run cover for illegals and massive welfare fraud.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a Tuesday cabinet meeting that 28 states and Guam, run by Republicans, have provided data like names and immigration statuses for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, but that the remaining Democrat-run states are refusing to comply.

“So as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states, until they comply and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer,” Rollins said at the White House.

Over 20 million SNAP recipients live in the Democrat-run states, nearly half of all 42 million recipients — a enormous number that should make anyone suspicious of the program.

The data was requested earlier this year, but the Democrat states filed a lawsuit claiming the data request violated privacy laws, essentially arguing that the government and taxpayers are not allowed to ensure accountability by tracking people who use the program.

The lawsuit is really a ploy to keep illegal immigrants in the country and on public welfare. As the lawsuit points out, the data could be used to inform better immigration enforcement. While the Trump administration maintains that the data will be used to clean up waste, fraud, and abuse, it should absolutely use the data to help deportation enforcement as well.

SNAP, much like other welfare programs, is notorious for fraud and abuse and often allows people who do not really need food assistance to game the system, not to mention the fact that the program allows recipients to purchase massive amounts of junk food that are clearly not “nutrition” as the program implies.

What’s worse is that 59 percent of illegal immigrant households use at least one welfare program, and 52 percent of legal immigrant households do the same. Native-born households account for 39 percent.

Food assistance like SNAP is one of the biggest categories of welfare for immigrants.

If the Trump administration wants to root out even more fraud, it should be looking for ways to denaturalize and deport any immigrant, legal or illegal, who is on public welfare. For years there was a law against immigrants coming into the country who would be a “public charge,” but it was completely neutered by the Clinton administration. Earlier this year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memo bringing it back.

“President Trump has made it a priority to ensure that the availability of public benefits does not encourage or reward illegal immigration into the United States. Consistent with this priority, USCIS officers are reminded that they must strictly adhere to the statutes, regulations, and USCIS policy when making inadmissibility determinations, including under the public charge ground,” the memo states. “Aliens subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility must demonstrate that they are not likely at any time to become a public charge.”

Beyond immigrants receiving SNAP, there are plenty of Americans who abuse it as well, which was showcased vividly during the fall government shutdown, when some recipients posted online that they would simply steal their two carts full of junk food if they did not receive their SNAP payments.

There appears to be a sense of cultural entitlement to these programs among its recipients, which needs to be confronted as well, but corporate media and other Democrats are constantly pushing propaganda about how cutting these payments are essentially stealing food from hungry citizens, as Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, attempted to argue after Rollins’ announcement.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.