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Newsmax’s Lidia Curanaj lit into the Biden administration on Sunday, declaring that “fifty‑nine percent of illegals were on our payroll before the government shutdown” and pointing to SNAP as a glaring example of the problem. Her blunt framing captured the frustration millions of Americans feel watching Washington spend taxpayer dollars while open‑border policies keep sending more people here outside the rule of law. Many patriots watching nodded — but we also owe it to the truth to separate inflammatory rhetoric from the facts so our outrage has teeth.
Here’s the sober reality: SNAP is a federal program with clear eligibility rules that generally bar unauthorized immigrants from receiving federally funded benefits, and it is administered by states under USDA oversight. Qualified noncitizens can access some benefits under narrow conditions, and citizen children in mixed‑status households may receive assistance, but the law does not broadly hand welfare cards to people who enter the country unlawfully. The Congressional Research Service and USDA explain the program’s federal rules and state administration framework in plain language.
That said, the left’s open‑border experiment has created messy loopholes and plenty of moral hazard. Data show noncitizen participation in SNAP exists — historically in the single digits as a share of participants — and mixed‑status households complicate enforcement and public perceptions. Advocates and watchdogs alike have documented how intimidation, shifting public‑charge rules, and state policy choices affect immigrant participation rates, but nowhere does the evidence support a claim that a majority of noncitizens or “illegals” are sucking on the federal teat at a 59 percent clip.
What Washington won’t tell you is how this administration has weakened checks and quietly encouraged states to share more benefits data without clear safeguards — and now states are fighting back. The state of Washington recently sued to block federal access to SNAP applicant data after the USDA signaled it might use such information for immigration enforcement, underscoring the chaos and the real privacy and governance questions at stake. Meanwhile, hardworking taxpayers get the short end of the stick while officials squabble about data and jurisdiction.
Conservatives have every right to be furious, but fury must be channeled into policy that works: tighten eligibility, close loopholes, and restore common‑sense verification like E‑Verify so employers stop hiring people who aren’t legally allowed to work and taxpayers stop footing bills for those who shouldn’t be here. If states want to offer charity, that’s one thing, but the federal treasury must prioritize citizens and legal residents first — especially during inflation and supply‑chain pain that we all feel at the supermarket. The Congressional Research Service and USDA outline tools Congress already has to tighten rules and improve work requirements if lawmakers have the backbone to use them.
The bigger picture is simple: a nation without secure borders and enforceable laws ceases to be a nation — it becomes a caricature of its former self. Americans who work two jobs, pay taxes on the nose, and keep faith with the community deserve a government that respects them, protects them, and stops rewarding lawbreaking. It’s time for Republican leaders to stop ceding the moral high ground and to force a debate in Congress that puts American families first, closes these welfare loopholes, and restores accountability to our immigration and benefits systems.
