By Renuka Rayasam for KFF
Separated from her grownup youngsters and grieving her husband’s loss of life within the struggle, she began a job packing containers in a warehouse, making simply sufficient to cowl hire for her personal condominium and payments.
Antoinette has been counting on the Supplemental Diet Help Program, previously generally known as meals stamps, for her weekly grocery journeys.
However now, simply as life is beginning to stabilize, she must cope with a brand new setback.
President Donald Trump’s large price range legislation, which Republicans name the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act, slashes $187 billion — or practically 20% — from the federal price range for SNAP by 2034. And separate from any momentary SNAP stoppages because of the federal shutdown, the legislation cuts off entry fully for refugees and different immigrant teams within the nation lawfully. The change was slated to take impact instantly when the legislation was signed in July, however states are nonetheless awaiting federal steering on when to cease or section it out.
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For Antoinette, 51, who didn’t need her final identify used for worry of deportation and certain persecution in her native nation, the lack of meals support is dire.
“I would not have the means to buy food,” she mentioned in French by a translator. “How am I going to manage?”
All through its historical past, the U.S. has admitted into the nation refugees like Antoinette, individuals who have been persecuted, or worry persecution, of their homelands as a consequence of race, faith, nationality, political views, or membership in a specific social group. These authorized immigrants usually face an in-depth vetting course of that may begin years earlier than they set foot on U.S. soil.
As soon as they arrive — usually with little or no means — the federal authorities gives sources similar to monetary help, Medicaid, and SNAP, outreach that has usually garnered bipartisan help. Now the Trump administration has pulled again the nation’s decades-long help for refugee communities.
The price range legislation, which funds a number of of the president’s priorities, together with tax cuts to rich Individuals and border safety, revokes refugees’ entry to Medicaid, the state-federal medical insurance program for individuals with low incomes or disabilities, beginning in October 2026.
However one of many first provisions to take impact beneath the legislation removes SNAP eligibility for many refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking and home violence victims, and different authorized immigrants. About 90,000 individuals will lose SNAP in a mean month on account of the brand new restrictions narrowing which noncitizens can entry this system, in line with the Congressional Price range Workplace.
“It doesn’t get much more basic than food,” mentioned Matthew Soerens, vice chairman of advocacy and coverage at World Aid, a Christian humanitarian group that helps U.S. refugees.
“Our government invited these people to rebuild their lives in this country with minimum support,” Soerens mentioned. “Taking food away from them is wrong.”
Not Only a Handout
However Steven Camarota, director of analysis for the Heart for Immigration Research, which advocates for decreased ranges of immigration to the U.S., mentioned cuts to SNAP eligibility are affordable as a result of foreign-born individuals and their younger youngsters disproportionately use public advantages.
Nonetheless, Camarota mentioned, the refugee inhabitants is completely different from different immigrant teams. “I don’t know that this would be the population I would start with,” Camarota mentioned. “It’s a relatively small population of people that we generally accept have a lot of need.”
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Federal, state, and native spending on refugees and asylum seekers, together with meals, well being care, training, and different bills, totaled $457.2 billion from 2005 to 2019, in line with a February 2024 report from the Division of Well being and Human Providers. Throughout that point, 21% of refugees and asylum seekers acquired SNAP advantages, in contrast with 15% of all U.S. residents.
Along with the price range legislation’s SNAP adjustments, monetary help given to individuals getting into the U.S. by the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement, part of HHS, has been reduce from one yr to 4 months.
The HHS report additionally discovered that regardless of the preliminary prices of caring for refugees and asylees, this neighborhood contributed $123.8 billion extra to federal, state, and native governments by taxes than they acquired in public advantages over the 15 years.
It’s within the nation’s greatest curiosity to proceed to help them, mentioned Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of International Refuge, a nonprofit refugee resettlement company.
“This is not what we should think about as a handout,” she mentioned. “We know that when we support them initially, they go on to not just survive but thrive.”
Meals Is Drugs
Meals insecurity can have lifelong bodily and psychological well being penalties for individuals who have already confronted years of instability earlier than coming to the U.S., mentioned Andrew Kim, co-founder of Ethnē Well being, a neighborhood well being clinic in Clarkston, an Atlanta suburb that’s house to 1000’s of refugees.
Clarkston, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, is house to 1000’s of refugees. A Division of Well being and Human Providers report discovered that refugee communities contributed $123.8 billion extra to federal, state, and native governments by taxes than they acquired in public advantages from 2005 to 2019.
Noncitizens affected by the brand new legislation would have acquired, on common, $210 a month inside the subsequent decade, in line with the CBO. With out SNAP funds, many refugees and their households may skip meals and change to lower-quality, cheap choices, resulting in continual well being considerations similar to weight problems and insulin resistance, and doubtlessly worsening already severe psychological well being circumstances, he mentioned.
After her husband was killed within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Antoinette mentioned, she grew to become separated from all seven of her youngsters. The youngest is nineteen. She nonetheless isn’t certain the place they’re. She misses them however is decided to construct a brand new life for herself. For her, sources like SNAP are crucial.
From the convention room of New American Pathways, the nonprofit that helped her enroll in advantages, Antoinette stared straight forward, stone-faced, when requested about how the cuts would have an effect on her.
Will she store much less? Will she eat fewer fruit and veggies, and fewer meat? Will she skip meals?
“Oui,” she replied to every query, utilizing the French for “yes.”
Since arriving within the U.S. final yr from Ethiopia along with his spouse and two teen daughters, Lukas, 61, has been addressing diabetes-related issues, similar to blurry imaginative and prescient, complications, and hassle sleeping. SNAP advantages permit him and his household to afford contemporary greens like spinach and broccoli, in line with Lilly Tenaw, the nurse practitioner who treats Lukas and helped translate his interview.
His blood sugar is now at a safer degree, he mentioned proudly after a category at Mosaic Well being Heart, a neighborhood clinic in Clarkston, the place he discovered to make lentil soup and steadiness his weight-reduction plan.
“The assistance gives us hope and encourages us to see life in a positive way,” he mentioned in Amharic by a translator. Lukas needed to make use of solely his household identify as a result of he had been jailed and confronted persecution in Ethiopia, and now worries about jeopardizing his capability to get everlasting residency within the U.S.
Since arriving within the U.S. final yr from Ethiopia, Lukas has been visiting the Mosaic Well being Heart in Clarkston, Georgia, to deal with diabetes-related issues. Meals stamps permit him and his household to afford contemporary greens like spinach and broccoli.
Starvation and poor diet can decrease productiveness and make it exhausting for individuals to seek out and maintain jobs, mentioned Valerie Lacarte, a senior coverage analyst on the Migration Coverage Institute.
“It could affect the labor market,” she mentioned. “It’s bleak.”
Extra SNAP Cuts To Come
Whereas the Trump administration ended SNAP for refugees efficient instantly, the change has created uncertainty for individuals who present help.
And it’s not simply refugees who’re affected.
Practically 42 million individuals obtain SNAP advantages, in line with the USDA. The nonpartisan Congressional Price range Workplace estimates that, inside the subsequent decade, greater than 3 million individuals will lose month-to-month meals {dollars} due to deliberate adjustments — similar to an extension of labor necessities to extra individuals and a shift in prices from the federal authorities to the states.
In September, the administration ended a key report that recurrently measured meals insecurity amongst all U.S. households, making it tougher to evaluate the toll of the SNAP cuts.
The USDA additionally posted on its web site that no advantages can be issued for anybody beginning Nov. 1 due to the federal shutdown, blaming Senate Democrats. The Trump administration has refused to launch emergency funding — as previous administrations have accomplished throughout shutdowns — in order that states can proceed issuing advantages whereas congressional leaders work out a price range deal. A coalition of attorneys common and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Oct. 28 contesting the administration’s choice.
Cuts to SNAP will ripple by native grocery shops and farms, stretching the sources of charity organizations and native governments, mentioned Ted Terry, a DeKalb County commissioner and former mayor of Clarkston.
“It’s just the whole ecosystem that has been in place for 40 years completely being disrupted,” he mentioned.
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Muzhda Oriakhil, senior neighborhood engagement supervisor at Mates of Refugees, an Atlanta-area nonprofit that helps refugees resettle, mentioned her group and others are scrambling to supply momentary meals help for refugee households. However charity organizations, meals banks, and different nonprofit teams can not make up for the lack of billions of federal {dollars} that assist households pay for meals.
“A lot of families, they may starve,” she mentioned.
