Shocking US government leaflet tells Mexican immigrants they can collect food stamp benefits without admitting they're in the country illegally

Conservative legal group obtained Agriculture Department flyer
'You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children'
Program in all 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S. helps push food stamps

PUBLISHED: 06:56 EST, 26 April 2013 | UPDATED: 14:45 EST, 26 April 2013

[headerlinks

A Spanish-language leaflet that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided to the Mexican Embassy in Washington advises border-crossing Mexicans that they can collect taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits for their children without admitting that they're illegal immigrants.

Underlined and in boldface type, the document tells immigrants who are unlawfully in the United States that, 'You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.'

The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, is funded in order to prevent hunger by helping poor families maintain a basic level of nutrition for both adults and children.

Congress spent $86.5 billion on the SNAP program in 2012, by far the largest single line-item in the USDA's $205 billion overall budget

The underlined portion reads: 'You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children'

The Agriculture Department says SNAP benefits are only to be distributed to U.S. citizens and other legal residents. On its website, it acknowledges an education 'partnership' with the Mexican government, but insists that its aim is to help educate only 'eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States' about nutrition benefits for which they might qualify.

That education partnership is carried out through a program called 'Ventanillas de Salud,' meaning 'Windows to Health,' implemented through 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S.

More...

Judicial Watch obtained the Spanish language leaflet through a Freedom of Information Act request. An attached email dates the document to March 2009, just months after President Barack Obama took office.

In an email, a spokesperson for the SNAP program told The Daily Caller , which first reported on the leaflet, that “non-citizens who are unlawfully present, are not, nor have they ever been, eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

In this Monday, March 25, 2013 photo, Border Patrol agent Richard Gordon, a 23-year veteran of the agency, walks the border fence in the Boulevard area east of San Diego looking for signs that reveal movement of illegal immigrants

U.S. Border Patrol agents detain undocumented immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border on April 11, 2013 near Mission, Texas

U.S. Border Patrol agents walk fences on the Mexican border, and detain illegal immigrants - including children - before returning them to south of the border. A majority will try to cross the border again

The leaflet, released late Thursday by the conservative group Judicial Watch, will raise questions about the Obama administration's commitment to limiting the expenditure of taxpayer funds to eligible Mexican nationals - meaning those with legal permission to reside in the United States.

'The revelation that the USDA is actively working with the Mexican government to promote food stamps for illegal aliens should have a direct impact on the fate of the immigration bill now being debated in Congress,' Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.

'These disclosures further confirm the fact that the Obama administration cannot be trusted to protect our borders or enforce our immigration laws. And the coordination with a foreign government to attack the policies of an American state is contemptible.'

Fitton's group also obtained a March 2010 USDA flyer advertising a taxpayer-funded online seminar for nonprofits serving Hispanic communities. The teaching session, promoted as being 'free for all participants,' taught activists how to get USDA funding to provide free lunches during the summer.

A Federal food stamps card is used to purchase food in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The UDSA designated food retailers like this Oregon grocery store as SNAP program participants

The federal government's SNAP program served about 43.6 million people in November 2010. Before the recession, the program had just 26 million enrollees. The USDA licenses food retailers like this Oregon grocery store as SNAP program participants

And in a March 2012 communication, Judicial Watch said, the USDA asked the Mexican Embassy to approve a letter addressed to that country's 50 consulates. That letter encouraged staff at those Mexican diplomatic missions to learn in another webinar how to encourage more of 'the needy families that the consulates serve' to enroll in the SNAP program.

Judicial Watch said Thursday that the 2012 document did not discriminate between legal US residents and illegal immigrants.

In August, Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon rolled out a new range of anti-fraud programs aimed at preventing food stamp funds from going to ineligible recipients.

'USDA has a zero tolerance policy for SNAP fraud,' Concannon said when announcing new measures to clamp down on abuse of the program that he promised would 'help us hold bad actors even more accountable than in the past and discourage them from abusing the public's trust.'

The agency's press release, however, made no mention of efforts intended to deny SNAP benefits to illegal immigrants.

People line up for their monthly debt cards and food stamps all over the country

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is President Obama's Secretary of Agriculture and is responsible for the SNAP program's operation

Last year Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions complained in writing to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack that, 'It defies rational thinking for the United States – now dangerously $16 trillion in debt – to partner with foreign governments to help us place more foreign nationals on American welfare.'

An estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States. President Obama and a bipartisan group of eight U.S. Senators are gathering support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would put most of them on a path to legal residence and, conservatives allege, both amnesty and citizenship.

Add your comments

Comments (150)

The comments below have not been moderated.

View all

The wealthiest people in the Congress and Senate are Democrats.This article highlights the left recruiting new voters.

- roscoe2-spokane , spokane, 27/4/2013 03:33

Click to rate Rating 5

We feed the 3rd. world and starve in the USA paying for FOOD STAMPS people...fat lazy people and hand-outs to other countries .

- Tuppence , Saint Petersburg Florida, United States, 27/4/2013 03:27

Click to rate Rating 5

Oh no, not people getting food assistance to feed their families. The horror. Geez, people how about we think of them as human beings rather than illegal citizens? - huevos usa, Detroit, United States, 4/27/13, 1:27 AM That's cute, coming from Detroit.

- Mr. Nice Yank , Minnesota USA, 27/4/2013 03:21

Click to rate Rating 10

Yep. I know I should have compassion but as I get older I am seeing more. I hear a lot of them speaking really loud Spanish in the store which I find annoying. I do not know if these are Illegals. They are infesting Marin County I heard and other parts in California.

- Wilderness , San Francisco, United States, 27/4/2013 03:08

Click to rate Rating 12

To angleiron2: Nancy Pelosi used illegals to work at her Napa Valley Vineyard. She is not a republican and she certainly isn't the only democrat hiring illegals. - Tess95, Charlotte, I am sure some percentage of the people that hire illegals are Democrats, but most are Republicans. Tysons foods a few years ago got in trouble for sending people to Mexico to encourage illegals to come. The problems will continue as long as you hire them illegally. I worked in construction and manufacturing and saw first hand Republican owned companies hiring illegals they all do it. I have a tea party Republican friend that hires them for her restaurant and when she gets letters from Social Security telling her of problems with the numbers she throws the letters away and nothing happens.

- angleiron2 , Sonoma, 27/4/2013 02:53

Click to rate Rating 17

There is still time to stop this OUTRAGE and the legislation they're debating now... These you know whats are like cockroaches here in Chesterfield county Virginia, home to part of Rep Cantor's district..There are hispanic markets that have signs saying they accept food stamps... it sickens my stomach. Viva la revolution...

- Andrew_59 , Richmond VA, United States, 27/4/2013 02:53

Click to rate Rating 14

Oh no, not people getting food assistance to feed their families. The horror. Geez, people how about we think of them as human beings rather than illegal citizens?

- huevos usa , Detroit, United States, 27/4/2013 02:27

Click to rate Rating 54

Under the U.S. Constitution citizens are those who are either born in the country or are naturalized. - RalphSmith, San Francisco, 4/27/13 0:34 The Constitution doesn't confer citizenship automatically on someone just because the are born here. That's a common misconception. If we stopped doing it, and we should because it is stupid, it would go a long way to easing the illegal entry problem.

- Pellican123 , Gibsonville, N.C., 27/4/2013 02:20

Click to rate Rating 26

Every dollar the feeds an illegal alien buys a vote for a democrat and encourages more illegals to come. It's that simple, and that's why the dems will never let it stop.

- Pellican123 , Gibsonville, N.C., 27/4/2013 02:15

Click to rate Rating 52

Super.....Now more of my tax dollars are going to more people that i dont care about. Great.

- dinodavid220 , atlanta, United States, 27/4/2013 02:11

Click to rate Rating 40

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.