Sessions Presses USDA for More Info on Non-Citizen Food Stamp Use, Participation Rates

After an effort to defund the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food stamp outreach partnership with the Mexican government went down in committee Thursday, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions continued to press the agency for more information about non-citizen participation in the food stamp program.

In a Friday letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack obtained by The Daily Caller, Sessions — who has been exchanging letters with Vilsack about USDA’s partnership with Mexico since last summer — requested additional information about the people the USDA has been enrolling in nutrition assistance programs and the agency’s program goals.

Last month, in a letter recently obtained by TheDC, Vilsack revealed that the share of overall Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp, benefits going to legal non-citizens has accounted for between 3.5–4.0 percent of the total caseload since 2004.

The agriculture secretary further addressed the fact that those non-citizens who enroll in SNAP are not considered to be government-reliant under the current policies governing immigrant inadmissibility under the public charge statue. {snip}

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Sessions’ Friday letter pressed Vilsack on the cumulative cost of nutrition assistance for non-citizens and the cost of the total amount spent on nutrition assistance benefits for both citizen and non-citizen immigrants, in order to get a clearer picture of the cost associated with the current public charge policy.

The Alabama senator also requested information about possible loopholes for illegal immigrants to partake in SNAP benefits.

“You emphasized that food stamp eligibility ‘has never been extended’ to illegal aliens. However, as you know, illegal immigrants can apply for food stamp benefits on behalf of eligible members of their households,” he wrote.

“To the extent that illegal immigrants do not have to expend their own resources to purchase food on behalf of others, they obviously benefit from that taxpayer-funded assistance. Does your Department have any estimates of total SNAP benefits provided to households headed by an illegal immigrant on behalf of eligible dependents?” Sessions asked, going on to request similar information on legal immigrants with illegal dependents.

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