USDA announces crackdown on benefits for undocumented immigrants – something that's already federal law

DALLAS - The head of the United States Department of Agriculture announced she will stop undocumented immigrants from receiving food stamps. But federal law already prohibits people who are in the country illegally from getting SNAP benefits.

USDA on SNAP benefits and immigration

What we know:

This week, USDA Secretary Booke Rollins sent a letter to the department that handles SNAP benefits, previously known as food stamps.

The letter references an executive order from President Donald Trump to end "taxpayer subsidization of open borders." 

It calls for enforcing all rules that restrict SNAP benefits to U.S. citizens and legal residents only.

The issue is that’s already the law on the books.  

"Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public benefits like SNAP. And they’re announcing that they will not be giving benefits like SNAP to undocumented immigrants. So it doesn’t change anything about the way things have already been functioning," said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration attorney.

FILE - "SNAP/EBT Food Stamp Benefits Accepted" is displayed on a screen inside a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on March 3, 2020. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

What we don't know:

Secretary Rollins said the directive is to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. 

The USDA has not yet responded to FOX 4’s request for further clarification on the letter.

Lincoln-Goldfinch can only think of a few exceptions, which are listed on the USDA’s website. They are for refugees, people who are granted asylum, and victims of human trafficking

"For as long as I’ve been practicing immigration law, which is decades at this point, there have not been provisions for public benefits like Section 8 housing and like SNAP to people who are undocumented," Lincoln-Goldfinch said. "The public benefits that undocumented immigrants can access are free education for children and emergency medical care."

Another group that could be impacted are families where the child is a U.S. citizen but his or her parents are immigrants in the country illegally.

"The individual applying for the benefit, it’s their status that matters. So, we might see a U.S. citizen child who has parents who are immigrants. And that child might be eligible for certain types of health insurance or CHIP or public benefits. But that child is a citizen and so they might be eligible," Lincoln-Goldfinch explained.