Study suggests Trump is scaring immigrant families off food stamps

[riversedge]

Trump is also scaring away sponsors for immigrants by requiring that the sponsor be fingerprinted.



Study suggests Trump is scaring immigrant families off food stamps


https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/15/18094901/trump-immigration-policy-food-stamps-snap
Experts think Trump’s rhetoric is driving immigrant families away from SNAP — and new data backs them up.



By Dylan [e-mail]@vox.com Updated Nov 15, 2018, 6:05pm EST



https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9frhijKN92p9YQWKEPAUvBoW5bU=/0x0:4288x2848/920x613/filters:focal(2311x886:2997x1572)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62333188/GettyImages_979309728.0.jpg
Protests against President Trump’s immigration crackdown earlier this summer. Cory Clark/NurPhoto via Getty Images

After two years of Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric, fewer immigrant families are using federal food stamps — even though no formal changes have been made to the program or its eligibility rules.

The implication, according to researchers who have been studying the program for decades and other experts tracking the consequences of Trump’s immigration crackdown, is families who should still be eligible for those benefits — and who still need them — have voluntarily decided to leave the program for fear that they would be at risk if they applied through the official channels.

In other words, it appears Trump is making immigrant families too afraid to apply for federal assistance so they can afford food.

Researchers from Boston Medical Center’s Children’s HealthWatch have run an ongoing survey of welfare recipients since the 1990s. Lead author Allison Bovell-Ammon presented her and her colleagues’ new findings this week at a meeting of the American Public Health Association.

Their study found that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by immigrant families who have been in the United States for fewer than five years and who are eligible dropped by nearly 10 percent in the first half of 2018. Immigrant families who have been in the US for more than five years also saw a drop in their SNAP participation, though a smaller one: 2 percent.

“Based on what we’ve heard anecdotally, people are really scared for their future,” Bovell-Ammon said in an interview.

These are preliminary findings, and it’s difficult to directly connect cause and effect here. But the Boston Medical Center study is some of the first data that supports what advocates and physicians who work with immigrant families have heard out in the field.................................

[dalton99a]

1. His sadistic cruelty knows no bounds

[Loki Liesmith]

2. This represents a successful Trump policy

For once he gets exactly the outcome he wants.

[LakeArenal]

3. Suggests? Come on... Listen to Paul Ryan or..

Or Scott Walker Or Rick Scott Or Any fricken office holding Republican.

Scaring immigrants off social programs is breakfast for them.