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FM
Former Member

Immigrants Canceling Their Food Stamps over Fears of Being Deported:

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File

Immigrants are canceling their food stamps over fears they could be deported.

Food banks and hunger advocates around the country from Tuscon to Baltimore have noticed a decline in the number of eligible immigrants applying for food stamps and a rise in the number of immigrants seeking to cancel their food stamps since President Trump’s inauguration two months ago, the Washington Post reported.

Advocates on behalf of these immigrants say that their fear stems from the possibility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would notice their participation in the food stamp program and deny them U.S. citizenship or deport them.

These immigrants are now going to food pantries and soup kitchens so that they can feed themselves and their families.

“They’re making these decisions based on what they hear in the news or information they’re getting from other people,” Miguelina Diaz, food support connections program manager for Hunger Free America, said. “People started asking questions right after Trump took office.”

Diaz said she recently helped two legal resident families from Queens remove themselves from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). One of the women, a mother of two, asked for help erasing her name from a local food pantry, as well.

 

Spanish-language SNAP applications to the Maryland Food Bank have fallen from 20 a month to zero, the Post reports.

According to the Department of Agriculture, 1.5 million non-citizens and 3.9 million children living with non-citizen adults received food stamps for the 2015 fiscal year.

Adults have to live in the U.S. for five years, be a refugee, or be disabled before they qualify to receive food stamps. Children who entered legally qualify sooner.

Illegal immigrants who live in a “mixed eligibility” household can apply for food stamps on behalf of their children who are U.S. citizens.

The Department of Agriculture says in its formal guidance for non-citizens that there are no immigration consequences for legal immigrants who participate in SNAP.

But a draft executive order from the Trump administration from January sought to make receiving public benefits, such as SNAP, a reason for deporting or denying citizenship to legal immigrants.

Advocates for reforming the welfare system say that immigrants, both illegal and legal, have too much access to public benefits and take more out of the system than they pay into it.

“I don’t think it’s proper to increase the burden on U.S. taxpayers for people whose only claim to them is that they broke our law,” said Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “These children receive a large amount of benefits because their parents came here illegally.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...ears-being-deported/

Replies sorted oldest to newest

RiffRaff posted:

Once Trump fill he belly, drink enuff milk fuh he Blubber Tits, then the rest can starve

You support welfare too? Bhai, me have to wuck to eat three meals a day. Me nah know wah Trump ah eat and Trump nah know if Prince ah eat garbage or not. Trump does feed you riffraff?

FM

I don't have a problem with a lil more taxes to feed people...better that than paying more to bomb them

If I have to one day be on welfare, that's fine too...I would have put enough in the system to benefit from it

FM

Thanks to the media for portraying white skin Arab terrorists as brown skin South Asians and thanks also to those dumb San Bernadino Paki Killers I am now afraid to be in places like the American NorthWest and Arizona where white people now think browns like me are Arabs. These white fools don't realize that in the Paki pits of Dubi my brown skin brothers and sisters are working in horrendous conditions for white Arabs because of their brown skins. That is the plight of the brown South Asian  man and woman immigrant in today's North America .

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad
RiffRaff posted:

I don't have a problem with a lil more taxes to feed people...better that than paying more to bomb them

If I have to one day be on welfare, that's fine too...I would have put enough in the system to benefit from it

Welfare is there for people who are unable to work. There is nothing wrong if have worked and paid your taxes and some unfortunate day you need this help. It's a good program. However, some people see it as an entitlement. 

FM
RiffRaff posted:

I don't have a problem with a lil more taxes to feed people...better that than paying more to bomb them

If I have to one day be on welfare, that's fine too...I would have put enough in the system to benefit from it

I totally agree. However, the welfare system needs to be reformed. I work hard for what little I have. There are some who go on welfare because of necessity and come off as soon as they can. Then there are those who make it a way of life. If you're on welfare, you shouldn't continue to churn out babies and there needs to be strict regulation on what the money is spent on. How many of us have to forego that new cell phone or vacation etc. because we have priorities? Give welfare to the ones who need it. Know a Guyanese chap who used to have someone call in for him while he was on VACATION in Guyana for unemployment benefits. By the way, he's half indian, quarter black and quarter Portuguese so nothing racist there.

GTAngler

True but I look at it as a form of welfare in this particular case. Also forgot to mention that he knocked up some girl in Guyana, got married, brought her over here and while still on unemployment and now on welfare, knocked her up again.

GTAngler

On a humourous note, Bangladeshis have been infiltrating my neighborhood. A family moved in a house opposite me and the wife does most of the work around the house. Chap jumps in his car, goes to work, comes back home, into the house. Yard cleaning, shoveling snow and throwing out garbage the wife does. So the other day, he was inside as usual and the wife, who doesn't drive, was cleaning the snow from the car. I called my wife and said, "Come see this, now that's a properly trained woman". ..........an den deh fight start.......

GTAngler
GTAngler posted:

True but I look at it as a form of welfare in this particular case. Also forgot to mention that he knocked up some girl in Guyana, got married, brought her over here and while still on unemployment and now on welfare, knocked her up again.

Knack Up is a good thing. Power to the brother.

 

Oh Rass I feel like Knacking up someone NOW

Nehru
GTAngler posted:

On a humourous note, Bangladeshis have been infiltrating my neighborhood. A family moved in a house opposite me and the wife does most of the work around the house. Chap jumps in his car, goes to work, comes back home, into the house. Yard cleaning, shoveling snow and throwing out garbage the wife does. So the other day, he was inside as usual and the wife, who doesn't drive, was cleaning the snow from the car. I called my wife and said, "Come see this, now that's a properly trained woman". ..........an den deh fight start.......

I had one like dat, he went back after draining the Equity on the House, left family/Friends in the House. They not paying Mortgage, water Bill and he collects in Bangladesh. The Frigging people dont clean the yard, sidewalk, I got a sanitation Ticket because their friggin garbage blow over to my side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nehru

The word “welfare” refers to a number of different government assistance programs that provide help to Americans struggling with poverty in distinct ways. SNAP/food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Need Families (TANF), Women, Infants and Children (WIC), tax credits for working families, and Social Security are just a few programs under the welfare umbrella.

Despite how commonly used these programs are, most people are unaware of how their daily lives are affected by government assistance.

In fact, many people who complain the most about the “evils” of welfare are actually receiving it themselves—in some form or another. They just don’t realize it, because they don’t know what welfare really entails.

Confusion about welfare is not a new thing. Stereotypes about recipients have played a crucial part in politics and propaganda for decades, fueled by class warfare and racist ideology. And the only real way to get folks to stop spreading misinformation is to educate them.

FM

Myth #1: Welfare Payments Are Too High

In reality, welfare benefits are modest at best, despite the continual attacks by conservative politicians who try, year after year, to reduce them.

Take the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps: The average benefit per person is $1.50 per meal.

Can you imagine trying to feed yourself adequately—not to mention healthilyon such an small amount of money?

Similar to SNAP, most other government assistance programs seek to provide only the barest minimum amount of help that an individual or family needs to survive.

FM

Myth #2: Welfare Recipients Are Lazy

The idea that most people on welfare are able-bodied adults who are just too lazy to get a job and make an honest living is utterly false.

Most benefit programs require recipients to work in order to collect. Take Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), for example. Single parents receiving this grant must work at least 30 hours per week in order to be eligible, and two-parent families must work between 35 and 50 hours a week.

The fact is, blue-collar wages in America are simply not high enough to support workers in today’s economy. The wages paid by many large employers are so low that their full-time employees are eligible for welfare.

You heard that right: People are working full-time to support their families, paying their fair share of taxes, but are so underpaid that they can’t get by without relying on government assistance.

This is partly due to the disturbing fact that the federal minimum wage has not been increased in over five years (despite the incessantly rising cost of living in our country) and partly due to voracious corporate greed.

And furthermore, half of all food stamp recipients are children. More than 82% of all food stamp money goes to households that include children, elderly people, or people with disabilities.These are people who legally or physically cannot work and live at the mercy of the system.

So where are all of these able-bodied lazy adults who are luxuriating off of their benefits? They are a fabrication.

Most people on welfare are hardworking, taxpaying citizens, just like the rest of us. Or they are impoverished children, elders, or folks with disabilities.

But it’s a lot easier for welfare critics to take help away from people that they imagine are lazy and deceitful, so that false image lives on.

FM

Myth #3: Undocumented Immigrants Are All on Welfare

Nope. Absolutely not.

In fact, undocumented immigrants in the US are not eligible for any benefits except emergency Medicaid (in the case that they are severely injured or sick).

According to the Social Security Administration, about half to three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pay federal, state, and local taxes, including billions in Social Security taxes for benefits that they will never see a penny of.

Yes, their kids can attend public schools for free, but undocumented immigrants are actually contributing more to the American economy than they take away—and they have no access to food stamps or other welfare programs, despite being one of the lowest-paid groups in the nation.

FM

Myth #4: People Use Welfare to Support Their Drug Habits

Federal government research tells us that the population of welfare receivers on drugs is basically the same as that of the American population in general—in some cases, even lower.

Recent drug testing results from individual states also prove the falseness of this widely accepted myth.

In July 2014, Tennessee began testing their welfare applicants, resulting in a whopping 1-in-800 people testing positive for illegal drugs. That’s less than 1%.

In Florida, four months of drug testing revealed that only 2.6% of applicants tested positive (in contrast, 8% of Florida’s non-welfare receiving population regularly test positive for drugs).

Research proves time and time again that mandated drug testing costs taxpayers much more money than it saves. And since welfare naysayers never get the results that they want from the tests, you would think they would give up with this tired tactic already.  

FM

Myth #5: The ‘Welfare Queen Is Hoodwinking Us All

Ronald Reagan once made a speech in which he claimed “There’s a woman in Chicago. She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards… She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.”

“Who is this woman and how dare she steal the money of innocent, hardworking people?”cried the voices of people across the nation.

Thus was born the infamous and still widely discussed “Welfare Queen.”

She stands for all welfare recipients that are (supposedly) lazily drinking the day away, popping out babies in order to “rake in” more welfare money, and fooling the system by getting more than their share of benefits and then using them to buy iPhones and lobster dinners.

Oh, and she’s obviously Black. Although Reagan didn’t specifically mention her race, he played upon white America’s racial fears to ensure that people assumed she was Black.

What’s more, she is the perfect scapegoat for us to blame for the problems of our nation, the perfect reason to not feel bad about voting for politicians who want to cut meager welfare benefits to struggling families.

There’s just one catch.

She doesn’t exist. Good old President Reagan made her up.

What’s much more important than the falsehood of that single example is the fact that this stereotype doesn’t hold up in general. As we’ve already discovered, most welfare recipients are people just like us—hard workers struggling to support themselves and their families in the wake of the Great Recession.

My advice? Speak out when people bring up the tired Welfare Queen and her 12 babies. A future in which people don’t begrudge struggling families their humble benefits based on a racist myth is possible.

Spread knowledge and knowledge will overcome.

FM

Myth #6: Welfare Is Not Effective

Government assistance is extremely effective at helping people get out of—and stay out of—poverty.

Conservative groups like the Cato Institute try to convince the public that because of increasing demand for programs such as food stamps, welfare has failed. In fact, the economic damage done by the Great Recession is the cause of rising food stamp participants.

The question we should be asking is, where would we be without these programs?

Well, in 2013, for example:

  • Food stamps helped lessen the burden of poverty for 4.8 million people.
  • The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit kept 8 million hardworking families from falling under the poverty line.
  • If Social Security didn’t exist, 27 million more people would be poor.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Every year, Census Bureau data proves that welfare programs are instrumental in helping people get back on their feet—and quickly.

This is exactly why these programs are necessary. And precisely why cutting their funding doesn’t make any sense.

In contrast, increasing funding to welfare programs would help alleviate poverty to an even greater extent, which would in turn help the economy grow and protect the middle class.

This brings us to the greatest myth of all—the myth that you or I will never, under no circumstance, need government assistance.

FM

Myth #7: You’ll Never Need Welfare

Welfare, in some form, touches most people at some point during their life.

Maybe it was that few months of unemployment benefits that the war vet received when she was laid off. Maybe it was childcare resources that saved the single dad’s ass when he needed to go to work and leave the kids at home. Or perhaps it was the tax credits that got that working family through their roughest time.

No one can truthfully know that life will not throw them a curveball that severely impacts their financial situation. It’s crucial to understand that many of the welfare recipients people pity—or disdain—started out in a much more stable position.

And no matter what our current circumstances are, things change. Wealth, health, and good luck do not always last. Not one of us can know for sure that we won’t need to rely on welfare at some point in our lives.

Realizing this is just one important step towards cultivating empathy for those who are less fortunate than us.


Providing a safety net through government assistance makes our country stronger—and it’s time for Americans to stop spreading untrue and damaging rumors decrying the very programs that are creating a brighter future for our nation’s most vulnerable. It’s time for politicians to stop trying to cut meager benefits to struggling families.

Because there are millions of people out there who truly need these programs to help them get back on their feet. And you never know—someday, you might be one of them.

FM
Prince posted:
RiffRaff posted:

Once Trump fill he belly, drink enuff milk fuh he Blubber Tits, then the rest can starve

You support welfare too?

Bhai, me have to wuck to eat three meals a day. Me nah know wah Trump ah eat and Trump nah know if Prince ah eat garbage or not. Trump does feed you riffraff?

The reality is that unfortunately, welfare existed in the past, currently and will be in the future ... it will never end.

One needs to always be focused on providing assistance to those in need.

FM
Demerara_Guy posted:
Prince posted:
RiffRaff posted:

Once Trump fill he belly, drink enuff milk fuh he Blubber Tits, then the rest can starve

You support welfare too?

Bhai, me have to wuck to eat three meals a day. Me nah know wah Trump ah eat and Trump nah know if Prince ah eat garbage or not. Trump does feed you riffraff?

The reality is that unfortunately, welfare existed in the past, currently and will be in the future ... it will never end.

One needs to always be focused on providing assistance to those in need.

 

GTAngler
Prince posted:
RiffRaff posted:

Once Trump fill he belly, drink enuff milk fuh he Blubber Tits, then the rest can starve

You support welfare too? Bhai, me have to wuck to eat three meals a day. Me nah know wah Trump ah eat and Trump nah know if Prince ah eat garbage or not. Trump does feed you riffraff?

In fact most people on food stamps do work for a living. Now if Trump and his buddies installed the $15/hour minimum working people wouldn't need food stamps.  Its either one or the other. $15 or allow the people to supplement their meager income with food stamps.

FM
GTAngler posted:
 

I totally agree. However, the welfare system needs to be reformed.

In fact it already has been.  The USA has a much weaker safety net than does Canada or most of Europe.  There is real third world style poverty here that one will not see in Toronto. 

Daily I see people begging for food and its interesting how many middle class folks of all races fell into this shame in the 2008/11 period when jobs were hard to find. Every time I went to the supermarket I saw well dressed women who didn't know how to use the food stamps debit card and were ashamed when this delayed the checkout process and folks began to look at them.

Yes there will be always some frauds but one doesn't starve those who need help because  % of people will shaft the system.  You should also be concerned about professionals who exploit tax payers funds by committing Medicare/Medicaid fraud by billing for services that they don't intend to provide.  In fact millions of dollars in New York state are wasted because of that.

FM
RiffRaff posted:

Myth #7: You’ll Never Need Welfare

.

In fact people with kids can be said to get "welfare".  Those who don't have kids have to pay more income taxes and fund schools and other social services that kids consume.  Should those without kids call others who benefit "welfare bums". 

At the end of the day many benefit from the social safety net.

FM
GTAngler posted:

On a humourous note, Bangladeshis have been infiltrating my neighborhood. A family moved in a house opposite me and the wife does most of the work around the house. Chap jumps in his car, goes to work, comes back home, into the house. Yard cleaning, shoveling snow and throwing out garbage the wife does. So the other day, he was inside as usual and the wife, who doesn't drive, was cleaning the snow from the car. I called my wife and said, "Come see this, now that's a properly trained woman". ..........an den deh fight start.......

GT you don't tell a Guyanese woman that. I don't care which color she is. She is going to put you in the yard to sleep. And if you tell her that more than once then you will end up like Keffer (a 60 years old bachelor). 

Prashad
Prashad posted:
.......

GT you don't tell a Guyanese woman that. I don't care which color she is. She is going to put you in the yard to sleep. And if you tell her that more than once then you will end up like Keffer (a 60 years old bachelor). 

I guess you expect them to revert back to their traditional South Asian behavior in your New Indesh.  They are too westernized.  Yes infected with that "17th century English pirate" culture.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Prashad posted:
GTAngler posted:

On a humourous note, Bangladeshis have been infiltrating my neighborhood. A family moved in a house opposite me and the wife does most of the work around the house. Chap jumps in his car, goes to work, comes back home, into the house. Yard cleaning, shoveling snow and throwing out garbage the wife does. So the other day, he was inside as usual and the wife, who doesn't drive, was cleaning the snow from the car. I called my wife and said, "Come see this, now that's a properly trained woman". ..........an den deh fight start.......

GT you don't tell a Guyanese woman that. I don't care which color she is. She is going to put you in the yard to sleep. And if you tell her that more than once then you will end up like Keffer (a 60 years old bachelor). 

There are a few middle aged bachelors at my workplace. It turned out that they all gay, so I am suspicious when a man in his middle age and don't have a chick or a child. We have a few of them here on this forum. 

FM
ball posted:

How you is no who them is, tell we nuh

Ball, I worked with a few gay guys on some Y2K projects. They are really nice dudes and some of them came out and told you plainly that they gay and are a protected group of people. I have seen one dude wore a black bra under his white shirt.

FM

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