CLARKSTON, Ga. — After fleeing the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Antoinette landed within the Atlanta space final November and started to seek out her footing with federal assist.
Separated from her grownup kids and grieving her husband’s demise within the battle, she began a job packing bins in a warehouse, making simply sufficient to cowl lease for her personal condo 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 take care of a brand new setback.
President Donald Trump’s huge price range legislation, which Republicans name the One Massive Lovely Invoice Act, slashes $187 billion — or almost 20% — from the federal price range for SNAP by 2034. And separate from any temporary SNAP stoppages due to the federal shutdown, the legislation cuts off entry utterly 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 steerage on when to cease or section it out.
For Antoinette, 51, who didn’t need her final title used for worry of deportation and certain persecution in her native nation, the lack of meals help is dire.
“I might not have the means to purchase meals,” she mentioned in French by a translator. “How am I going to handle?”
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 because of race, faith, nationality, political beliefs, or membership in a selected social group. These authorized immigrants sometimes 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 supplies sources akin to monetary help, Medicaid, and SNAP, outreach that has sometimes garnered bipartisan assist. Now the Trump administration has pulled again the nation’s decades-long assist 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 health insurance program for folks with low incomes or disabilities, beginning in October 2026.
However one of many first provisions to take impact underneath the legislation removes SNAP eligibility for many refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking and home violence victims, and different authorized immigrants. About 90,000 folks will lose SNAP in a median month on account of the brand new restrictions narrowing which noncitizens can entry this system, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“It doesn’t get far more primary than meals,” mentioned Matthew Soerens, vp of advocacy and coverage at World Aid, a Christian humanitarian group that helps U.S. refugees.
“Our authorities invited these folks to rebuild their lives on this nation with minimal assist,” Soerens mentioned. “Taking meals away from them is mistaken.”
Not Only a Handout
The White Home and officers at america Division of Agriculture didn’t reply to emails about assist for the availability that ends SNAP for refugees within the One Massive Lovely Invoice Act.
However Steven Camarota, director of analysis for the Heart for Immigration Research, which advocates for lowered ranges of immigration to the U.S., mentioned cuts to SNAP eligibility are cheap as a result of foreign-born folks and their younger kids disproportionately use public advantages.
Nonetheless, Camarota mentioned, the refugee inhabitants is totally different from different immigrant teams. “I don’t know that this is able to be the inhabitants I might begin with,” Camarota mentioned. “It’s a comparatively small inhabitants of those who we typically settle for have a whole lot of want.”
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 accordance with a February 2024 report from the Division of Well being and Human Providers. Throughout that point, 21% of refugees and asylum seekers obtained SNAP advantages, in contrast with 15% of all U.S. residents.
Along with the price range legislation’s SNAP adjustments, financial assistance given to folks coming into the U.S. by the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement, part of HHS, has been lower from one 12 months 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 obtained in public advantages over the 15 years.
It’s within the nation’s finest curiosity to proceed to assist them, mentioned Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of International Refuge, a nonprofit refugee resettlement company.
“This isn’t what we must always take into consideration as a handout,” she mentioned. “We all know that after we assist them initially, they go on to not simply survive however thrive.”
Meals Is Medication
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 dwelling to hundreds of refugees.
Noncitizens affected by the brand new legislation would have obtained, on common, $210 a month throughout the subsequent decade, in accordance with the CBO. With out SNAP funds, many refugees and their households would possibly skip meals and change to lower-quality, cheap choices, resulting in power well being considerations akin to weight problems and insulin resistance, and doubtlessly worsening already critical psychological well being circumstances, he mentioned.
After her husband was killed within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Antoinette mentioned, she turned separated from all seven of her kids. The youngest is nineteen. She nonetheless isn’t positive the place they’re. She misses them however is decided to construct a brand new life for herself. For her, sources like SNAP are vital.
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 “sure.”
Since arriving within the U.S. final 12 months from Ethiopia together with his spouse and two teen daughters, Lukas, 61, has been addressing diabetes-related issues, akin to blurry imaginative and prescient, complications, and hassle sleeping. SNAP advantages enable him and his household to afford recent greens like spinach and broccoli, in accordance with Lilly Tenaw, the nurse practitioner who treats Lukas and helped translate his interview.
His blood sugar is now at a safer stage, he mentioned proudly after a category at Mosaic Well being Heart, a neighborhood clinic in Clarkston, the place he realized to make lentil soup and steadiness his food plan.
“The help provides us hope and encourages us to see life in a constructive method,” he mentioned in Amharic by a translator. Lukas needed to make use of solely his household title as a result of he had been jailed and confronted persecution in Ethiopia, and now worries about jeopardizing his potential to get everlasting residency within the U.S.
Starvation and poor vitamin can decrease productiveness and make it arduous for folks to seek out and preserve jobs, mentioned Valerie Lacarte, a senior coverage analyst on the Migration Coverage Institute.
“It may have an effect on 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.
State officers in Texas and California, which obtain essentially the most refugees amongst states, and in Georgia advised KFF Well being Information that the USDA, which runs this system, has but to problem steerage on whether or not they need to cease offering SNAP on a particular date or section it out.
And it’s not simply refugees who’re affected.
Almost 42 million folks obtain SNAP advantages, according to the USDA. The nonpartisan Congressional Finances Workplace estimates that, throughout the subsequent decade, greater than 3 million folks will lose month-to-month meals {dollars} due to deliberate adjustments — akin to an extension of labor necessities to extra folks and a shift in prices from the federal authorities to the states.
In September, the administration ended a key report that regularly measured food insecurity amongst all U.S. households, making it more durable to evaluate the toll of the SNAP cuts.
The USDA additionally posted on its website 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 carried out throughout shutdowns — in order that states can proceed issuing advantages whereas congressional leaders work out a price range deal. A coalition of attorneys basic 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 simply the entire ecosystem that has been in place for 40 years utterly being disrupted,” he mentioned.
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 non permanent meals help for refugee households. However charity organizations, meals banks, and different nonprofit teams can’t make up for the lack of billions of federal {dollars} that assist households pay for meals.
“A variety of households, they might starve,” she mentioned.
