According
to a recent news article from The Kansa City Star, the Kansas Department of
Social and Rehabilitation Services made a policy change that took effect on
October 1st, and have eliminated food stamps benefits for 1,042
households in which low-income U.S. children live with their illegal-immigrant
parents. Under the new policy, while SRS counts the family’s full income, it
calculates food stamp eligibility as if the U.S. citizens in the family were
the only people in the household.
In theory, this makes perfect sense in terms
of the government’s responsibility of protecting U.S. citizen only. In reality,
however, it is not possible for the family to spend all of their income on one
group of family members even if they are willing to. Therefore, although both
are U.S. citizens, children of illegal immigrants are inevitably discriminated
against others in terms of nutrition support. Most of the time those kinds of
families are consisted of one or two illegal immigrant parents, sometimes even
one or more children who were born in their home country, therefore, do not
have legal status, and then one or more children who were born in the U.S. and
became American citizens. Like James E. Faust said, "No gift bestowed upon
us is so precious as children. They are proof that God still loves us. They are
the hope of the future,” I would never doubt the fact that parents are willing
to give their children everything that they have, under extreme circumstances,
even their lives. Needless to talk about
prioritizing their children’s nutrition needs above their own. Whereas, after
all, they need to stay alive to provide for their kids.
