{"id":607762,"date":"2018-07-30T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=607762"},"modified":"2018-07-29T09:32:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T15:32:52","slug":"crackdown-fears-may-keep-legal-immigrants-from-food-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/crackdown-fears-may-keep-legal-immigrants-from-food-stamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Crackdown fears may keep legal immigrants from food stamps"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_424908\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-424908\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE-771x563.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\" width=\"771\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE-771x563.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE-336x246.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE-768x561.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE-1170x855.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/ICE.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents arresting suspects during a raid.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 It\u2019s that time of the week \u2014 food pantry day \u2014 and before the doors even open at the Spanish Catholic Center, the patrons begin queueing up, lugging roller carts and empty grocery bags, the line stretching out onto the hot sidewalk. Immigrants all, they hail from the Congo and Costa Rica, from Nicaragua and El Salvador, from Togo and Vietnam. Most are seniors.<\/p>\n<p>And all of them, they say, are afraid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like a rabbit in a cage,\u201d said Marta, 62, who moved to the United States from El Salvador 16 years ago, and didn\u2019t want her surname used because she is living here illegally. Added Maria Monestel, an 81-year-old babysitter from Costa Rica, \u201cEveryone is scared. They think they don\u2019t have any rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That keeps many from signing up for food stamps and other public assistance even when they\u2019re eligible, said Monestel, who has lived here for decades as a legal permanent resident.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/blogs\/stateline\/2018\/07\/24\/why-crackdown-fears-may-keep-legal-immigrants-from-food-stamps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stateline<\/a>, an initiative of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Pew Charitable Trusts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re afraid if they do anything, they\u2019ll be deported,\u201d Monestel said.<\/p>\n<p>As the Trump administration has stepped up deportations and workplace raids around the country, there\u2019s been a drop at the Spanish Catholic Center in all immigrants applying for food stamps, said case manager Rodrigo Aguirre. Many fill in the gaps by picking up bags of donated groceries from the center\u2019s food pantry.<\/p>\n<p>Food stamp enrollment in the past quarter has fallen by about half from this time last year, Aguirre said, even with increased outreach and after the center streamlined its application process.<\/p>\n<p>Such decreases may happen whenever the government cracks down on immigrants, a new study shows.<\/p>\n<p>The National Bureau of Economic Research study found that in the decade before Donald Trump took office, there might have been a correlation between deportation fears and the drop-off in the number of Latino immigrants enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps, and the Affordable Care Act insurance program, also known as Obamacare.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers looked at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nber.org\/papers\/w24731\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latino enrollment in food stamps<\/a>\u00a0between 2006 and 2016, the most recent year for which data is available. They found that after the federal government began stepping up deportation efforts, Latino immigrant enrollment in SNAP and the ACA dropped. (The ACA wasn\u2019t passed until 2010, and went into effect in 2014.)<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security started a partnership, the Secure Communities program, that cross-checked the fingerprints of people arrested at the local level with the agency\u2019s database of deportable individuals. The program ran until 2014, and was reinstated last year. It resulted in the deportation of more than\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/secure-communities#wcm-survey-target-id\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">363,000 immigrants charged with crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In cities that began cooperating with Secure Communities, food stamp enrollment among immigrants dropped by 19 percent within five years, the report found. But in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/blogs\/stateline\/2017\/05\/10\/cities-states-move-to-calm-fear-of-deportation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201csanctuary cities\u201d around the country<\/a>, there was no drop-off in SNAP and ACA enrollment. (The study included data from the Pew Research Center, which, like\u00a0<em>Stateline<\/em>, is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.)<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A spokesman with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Declines in SNAP and ACA enrollment were largest in \u201cmixed status\u201d households where some people are in the country legally and some are not, the study found. For example, one family member may be a citizen, another an asylee or a permanent resident, and still another undocumented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a fear of exposing family members,\u201d said Crystal Yang, assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School, one of the report\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n<p>That fear comes at a price, said co-author Marcella Alsan, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. For immigrant families struggling to get by, the drop in food stamp use, she said, \u201ccould have a long-term effect on their health and their mobility out of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But some researchers at California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit based in Oakland, caution against drawing a conclusion between the implementation of the Secure Communities program and the drop-off in food stamp enrollment.<\/p>\n<p>Clients may drop out for a host of reasons, such as frustrations with submitting paperwork, said Jared Call, the group\u2019s managing policy advocate. And as the economy improves, there\u2019s a decline in food stamp enrollment as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to draw a direct cause and effect,\u201d Call said. \u201cThey don\u2019t ask you why you\u2019re disenrolling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One thing is certain, he said: \u201cSNAP is the nation\u2019s first line of defense against hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that favors limited immigration, if the decline in SNAP enrollment is a result of the Secure Communities program, \u201cthat could be because of the overreaction among the groups that work with immigrants in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir protests and efforts to make this into a huge deal is as likely to contribute to fear in the immigrant community as anything else,\u201d Vaughan said. Then, too, she said, the decline in food stamp enrollment could also be attributed to eligible family members leaving to be with loved ones who were deported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt might not be fear,\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cIt might be fewer people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s up to advocates working with immigrant groups to do all they can to allay the fears of immigrants, Vaughan said, to let them know, no one will be deported for receiving food stamps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not how immigration enforcement works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, at the Spanish Catholic Center, which is run by Catholic Charities, Aguirre said, they\u2019re \u201cseeing kids go hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids are born U.S. citizens,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have a right to get food. We\u2019re going to have a huge population that will struggle. We might not see it now, but we will in 20 years, when these kids come into the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Climate of fear<\/h3>\n<p>Without the stepped-up immigration enforcement of Secure Communities, Alsan and Yang estimate that ACA enrollment among Latino immigrants would be 22 percent higher.<\/p>\n<p>Cities that didn\u2019t cooperate with Secure Communities didn\u2019t see the same declines.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s significant, said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based out of Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSanctuary policies make a difference,\u201d he said. \u201cThey reduce the level of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, anxiety remains, even in sanctuary cities. Earlier this year, Reuters reported the Trump administration was considering\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-immigration-services-exclusive\/exclusive-trump-administration-may-target-immigrants-who-use-food-aid-other-benefits-idUSKBN1FS2ZK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">making it harder for immigrants to get a green card<\/a>\u00a0if they or their U.S.-born children used public assistance programs such as food stamps. Advocates say that sent many immigrants into a panic.<\/p>\n<p>Nhai Nguyen, 68, has been in the United States since 1991. She\u2019s retired now, and her 74-year-old husband is blind. Food stamps only take them but so far, she said, so they come to the food pantry at the Spanish Catholic Center. She worries constantly, she said, even though she is a naturalized citizen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat if Trump cuts off Medicare?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;What if he cuts off food stamps?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Houston, at the Epiphany Community Health Outreach Services, a local nonprofit that works with the immigrant community, SNAP enrollment dropped by a third compared with this time last year. Meanwhile, participation in the food pantry program increased 266 percent, according to the center.<\/p>\n<p>Rumors fuel the fear, said Maricela Delcid, a navigator at the nonprofit who helps eligible immigrants enroll in social services. Most of the immigrant parents she works with are undocumented, and therefore don\u2019t qualify for benefits such as food stamps. But they don\u2019t understand that they can apply on behalf of their U.S.-born children, Delcid said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s word of mouth, whatever their friends tell them, they take it as, \u2018It\u2019s going to happen to me,\u2019\u201d Delcid said. \u201cAnd a lot of them are saying, \u2018Don\u2019t apply for benefits, you\u2019ll get deported.\u2019 We try to explain to them, \u2018That\u2019s not how it works.\u2019 But they just don\u2019t want to renew their benefits any more. They want them to expire.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Portrait of a population<\/h3>\n<p>Most immigrants do not use food stamps and other forms of public assistance. The vast majority of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/snap\/characteristics-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-households-fiscal-year-2016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">food stamp beneficiaries<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 92 percent \u2014 are U.S.-born citizens. Four percent are naturalized citizens, 1 percent are refugees, and 3 percent are \u201cother noncitizens,\u201d according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The average benefit for one person is $126.76 a month.<\/p>\n<p>Immigrants must have lived legally in the United States for five years to be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/ops\/Characteristics2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eligible to receive SNAP benefits<\/a>. A few other immigrant groups \u2014 refugees, asylees and the elderly \u2014 also are eligible to receive food stamps. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible, although many of them work and pay taxes. Immigrants living in the United States are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/issues\/economic-support\/foodstamps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">twice as likely as U.S. citizens to be poor<\/a>, despite working at the same rate.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a perception that \u201cpoor people want handouts, and immigrants are lumped into that category,\u201d said Eric Rodriguez, vice president of research, advocacy and legislation for UnidosUS, formerly National Council on La Raza, an advocacy group based in Washington. He said that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n<p>At 74, Eduardo Lacayo is a retired construction worker from Nicaragua with a permanent green card and two bad knees. He relies on food stamps, but they don\u2019t stretch very far, so he hits up the food pantry at the Spanish Catholic Center every week.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested a number of immigrants in the center\u2019s neighborhood, and Lacayo worries about further actions. What if the United States revokes his residency?<\/p>\n<p>Fear is a constant, he said, and these days many of his friends who don\u2019t have papers stay close to home. So, he said, gesturing to an extra bag of groceries from today\u2019s food pantry, he does what he can to help them out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho knows what\u2019s going to happen?\u201d Lacayo said, before dashing off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Such decreases may happen whenever the government cracks down on immigrants, a new study shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":424908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,146],"class_list":["post-607762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-poverty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}