It’s amazing what comes to light when the money finally runs out and government is forced to prioritize for once. As the Schumer Shutdown lumbers into Week Five with no end in sight, the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — better known as food stamps — officially ran out of funds on Saturday. And considering who’s been cashing in all these years, it’s a miracle there was anything left in the pot to begin with.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins noted on Sunday that, earlier this year, “We told every state to send us their SNAP data so we could make sure illegal immigrants aren’t getting benefits meant for American families. 29 states stepped up. 21 blue states refused — and two SUED US FOR ASKING!”
Translation: A ton of SNAP money is going to illegal aliens and Democrat-run states are the ones handing them out.
I’m guessing the Center for Immigration Studies — which likes to describe itself as “low-immigration” but still “pro-immigrant” — was having a little fun with this headline, though the irony wasn’t lost on anyone paying attention: Illegal Immigrants To Be Hit Hard As SNAP and WIC Benefits Expire.
The organization’s 2023 analysis of federal data showed that “households headed by illegal immigrants make extensive use of the welfare system, particularly food assistance programs.”
CIS estimated that 59% of households headed by an illegal immigrant are on at least one form of welfare — cash assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, or housing aid.
Take another gander at that: We’re handing out taxpayer-funded cash, food, healthcare, and housing to people who aren’t even supposed to be in the country.
Millions of them. And yet Democrats have spent years swearing up and down that this kind of thing “never happens.” No wonder 21 blue states refused to let Rollins audit their books — they’re terrified of what the numbers would actually show.
I’ve got a solution — actually, two.
First, every welfare program in this country should require proof of citizenship, not just “legal residence.” If you’re not a U.S. citizen and can’t provide for yourself or your family, you have no business being here. We already have enough challenges taking care of our own citizens without importing more dependency.
That used to be the global standard — every nation on Earth understood that immigration came with responsibility, not entitlement. It’s time we return to that principle. Not just to save taxpayer dollars, but to attract the kind of immigrants who come here to contribute, not collect. America needs makers, not takers.
Now, before I get to the second solution, let’s look at a perfect example of how broken the system has become — the case of native-born American Maggie Aragon, recently featured on KOAT 7 in New Mexico:
"When I heard, 'Zero dollars,' my chest went into my throat."
New Mexico woman on food stamps for 30 years says SNAP freeze is "detrimental to my life." pic.twitter.com/VFSn9LJcXM
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 2, 2025
“Maggie Aragon has been a SNAP recipient for more than three decades.” Okay, that’s not “assistance,” that has become a lifestyle. And that isn’t what SNAP was intended to do – create lifetime recipients.
The second solution is simple common sense: a food program that covers everything from Almond Joys to Zapp’s Potato Chips is neither supplemental nor nutritional. SNAP was never meant to subsidize junk food binges at taxpayer expense.
If it’s going to be called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, then it should actually be nutritional. That means limiting purchases to real ingredients — the kind you cook with — not prepackaged, sugar-loaded garbage.
It doesn’t help that we’re foolish enough to import this lifestyle from abroad. As CIS bluntly put it, “this situation raises important policy questions, including whether it makes sense to have an immigration system that allows in so many people who turn to taxpayers to support their children.”
And they’re right — it only makes sense if the goal is to take the most productive, self-reliant people in human history and turn them into something else entirely. Dependency isn’t compassion; it’s control. And that’s exactly what the Left is after.
