Reflection on the Food Aid Cut for U.S. Citizen Children of Illegal Immigrants

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 1^st, 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.