Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a directive on Tuesday that tightens restrictions on access to food stamps, limiting such benefits exclusively to American citizens and legal immigrants.

It is another common sense move being implemented by the new administration to dissuade illegals from attempting to game the system.

“The days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over,” Secretary Rollins said in a press release. “Today's directive affirms that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will follow the law—full stop."

The move directs the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) within the Agriculture Department to "immediately clarify and enforce all rules restricting its beneficiaries to U.S. citizens and legal residents only."

🚨 Secretary Rollins Takes Action to Prevent Illegal Aliens from Accessing Food Stamps https://t.co/uoMVZXGdlY

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 26, 2025

A letter from Rollins cites an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on February 19th that "ends taxpayer subsidization of open borders."

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The EO "directs Federal departments and agencies to identify all federally funded programs currently providing financial benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action."

"President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans," a White House fact sheet reads.

🚨 BREAKING: President Donald J. Trump just signed an executive order to TERMINATE all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens and END the subsidization of open borders.

Here is the text of the order:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the…

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 20, 2025

Interestingly, the directive from Secretary Rollins also cites the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, passed bipartisanly by Congress and signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.

The Act "generally prohibits illegal aliens from receiving federal benefits, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits," Rollins' letter states.

There used to be a time when Congress and a Democrat President operated under the mantra of common-sense reforms to benefit the American people. Seems so long ago. An alternate universe, really.

More via WH official on background:

“Under current welfare laws, specifically the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), illegal aliens are generally barred from welfare programs. But if they’re granted parole, they are classified as…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 19, 2025

By contrast, providing benefits meant for the American people to those who ignore the laws of this sovereign nation has long been a platform of the Democrat Party. 

According to the White House, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Biden Administration’s open borders agenda cost Federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion by providing Medicaid-funded emergency services to illegal aliens.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), just before Biden entered the Oval Office, introduced a series of left-wing economic policy proposals seeking to provide unfettered access to welfare benefits for illegal aliens.

AOC in 2019 pushed legislation known as “A Just Society," which stated, "an individual who is an alien (without regard to the immigration status of that alien) may not be denied any Federal public benefit solely on the basis of the individual’s immigration status.”

Those federal government benefits include – among many other social aid programs – welfare, food stamps, disability, public housing, etc.

Fortunately, that bill went nowhere, but progressives who eventually took over the White House under Biden likely shoehorned elements into the previous administration's agenda.