USDA to Review All Programs to Ensure ‘Only Legal Citizens’ Receive Government Benefits: Secretary Rollins

By Naveen Athrappully

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be examining all government-assistance programs to certify recipient accuracy, according to a Dec. 1 post on X.

“At @POTUS’ direction we will be reviewing ALL @USDA PROGRAMS to ensure only legal citizens are receiving benefits,“ USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said.

“Earlier this year, USDA put states on notice reminding them illegal immigrants and certain non-citizens CAN NOT receive SNAP benefits.

“Right now, we are requiring states turn over recipient data to fight waste, fraud, and abuse. Even though 22 blue states have refused to provide the data, we are using every tool to compel their compliance. WHAT are they hiding? WHO are they hiding? Thank you, President Trump, for putting Americans first!”

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 19 ordering the USDA to enhance its eligibility verification systems to make sure “taxpayer-funded benefits exclude any ineligible alien who entered the United States illegally or is otherwise unlawfully present in the United States.”

Subsequently, in April, the USDA instructed states to take steps to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving SNAP benefits.

States were asked to verify applicants’ identities, collect Social Security numbers to compare against a federal database, and check whether individuals are legal residents of the United States using the Department of Homeland Security database.

In July, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which further restricted SNAP eligibility for immigrants.

On Oct. 31, the USDA sent a guidance memo to all SNAP state agencies clarifying that certain immigrant groups, such as refugees, parolees, individuals granted asylum, and individuals whose deportation has been withheld, are not eligible for SNAP benefits.

In interviews last month, Rollins revealed that a USDA audit showed SNAP funding was being provided to almost 186,000 dead people, and that around half a million SNAP recipients were getting benefits twice.

On Nov. 26, a coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the USDA over blocking SNAP benefits to certain immigrant groups.

The office of Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown criticized the federal government for its attempt to restrict SNAP for immigrants. Washington is one of the states in the lawsuit.

“SNAP benefits ensure Washingtonians, including seniors, children, and people living with disabilities, have enough to eat every day,” Brown said.

“Now, without any warning or legal basis, USDA is trying to rip these benefits away from green card holders in our communities. We will fight this illegal move and protect SNAP for Washingtonians.”

According to his statement, federal statutes make it clear that asylum seekers, refugees, individuals whose deportation has been withheld, humanitarian parolees, and other vulnerable legal migrants are eligible for SNAP once they obtain green cards and meet program requirements.

‘Social Dysfunction in America’

Rollins’s Dec. 1 post on X was in response to a Nov. 28 post from Trump in which the president criticized the disbursal of federal benefits to immigrants.

“The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens,” Trump wrote.

“A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America.

“Even as we have progressed technologically, Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many.”

The president said he would permanently pause immigration from all third-world nations to allow the U.S. system to “fully recover,” and end all federal subsidies and benefits to noncitizens.

In a similar Nov. 29 post on X, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration was working to cut off federal benefits to illegal immigrants and preserve these benefits for American citizens.

The Treasury intends to issue proposed regulations clarifying that the refunded portion of certain individual income tax benefits will no longer be available to illegal immigrants and other non-qualified immigrants.

Such tax benefits include the Additional Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and American Opportunity Tax Credit, Bessent said.