USDA website promotes food stamp programs.

President Donald Trump’s enforcement of U.S. immigration laws is costing illegal aliens the benefits of food stamps, the Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday.

In its article, “Fear of deportation drives people off food stamps in US,” AP argues that fear of deportation has scared some into opting out of USDA food stamp programs:

“A crackdown on illegal immigration under President Donald Trump has driven some poor people to take a drastic step: opt out of federal food assistance because they are fearful of deportation, activists and immigrants say.”

While the AP acknowledges that “People who are not legal residents of the U.S. are not eligible to take part” in food stamp programs, it says that families that include “a mix of non-legal residents” may be opting out.

“It is not possible to determine the extent of the phenomenon,” the AP concedes.

“Driving the most recent fears about the program is an increase in immigration enforcement,” the AP says, noting a 40 percent increase in arrests of illegal aliens in Trump’s first 100 days in office:

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 40 percent more people suspected of being in the country illegally in the first 100 days under Trump than in the same period a year earlier. The agency said nearly 75 percent of them had been convicted of criminal offenses but ‘non-criminal arrests’ were up by more than 150 percent.”

In counterpoint, AP quotes Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Executive Director Mark Krikorian, who likens the suggestion that Americans should pay to provide for illegal aliens, who willfully broke into the U.S., “moral blackmail”: