Congress Overwhelmingly Approves Restoration of Food Stamps to Some Immigrants

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

Food and Nutrition Programs

CONGRESS OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVES RESTORATION OF FOOD STAMPS TO SOME IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 12, No. 4, June 17, 1998

The Agricultural Research Extension and Education Reform Act (S. 1150), restoring federal food stamp eligibility to some immigrants, passed the House of Representatives on June 4, 1998, by a vote of 364 to 50. The Senate approved the measure on May 12, 1998. It is expected that the president will sign the bill.

Immigrants assisted by the bill become eligible on Nov. 1, 1998. The bill restores food stamp eligibility to immigrants and others in the following categories: children under eighteen who were lawfully residing in the United States on Aug. 22, 1996; elderly individuals who were lawfully residing in the U.S. on Aug. 22, 1996, and were 65 years of age or older on that date; disabled immigrants who were lawfully residing in the U.S. on Aug. 22, 1996, regardless of when they become disabled; Hmong and Lao veterans who fought on the U.S. side in the Vietnam War; and American Indians born in Canada and other tribal members born outside the U.S. It also extends the refugee exemption from five to seven years (this covers asylees, refugees, Cuban/Haitian entrants, Amerasian immigrants, and individuals granted withholding of deportation/removal).

The federal change provides a federal floor of immigrant eligibility for food stamps, restoring eligibility to about 30 percent of those made ineligible by the 1996 welfare law. It leaves responsibility for all other immigrants to the states. Most of those who remain ineligible are adults in families with children.

Two recent studies suggest that the federal change, without more, is inadequate to prevent widespread hunger in families with children. One, by the California Food Policy Advocates along with the counties of Los Angeles and San Francisco, showed that hunger in families affected by the cuts increased dramatically after they went into effect. The study used a random sample and measured hunger according to well-established indicators.

Most of these families will not be helped by the recent federal restoration of benefits. This places the focus for addressing the growing hunger problem squarely at the state level, at least in the near future: states will have to provide the funds necessary to fill in the gap left when the federal government took away legal immigrants’ access to food stamps. However, advocates for immigrants will continue their efforts to have federal food stamp benefits fully restored to all low-income people who need them.