No, SNAP benefits are not mostly used by immigrants
Almost 42 As millions of Americans face the loss of food stamps this weekend, far-right influencers, extremists and conspiracy theorists are using the crisis to spread racist misinformation about who will receive those benefits.
As a result of the government shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will not be funded beginning Nov. 1, according to a message on the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program. While this loss of benefits could be catastrophic for millions of people, it hasn’t stopped the flood of misinformation. A number of conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers claim that immigrants are the main recipients of food stamps, while AI-generated videos on TikTok incite racist stereotypes of black people demanding more benefits.
These claims are simply not true, given that the majority of SNAP recipients are white Americans, according to data compiled by the USDA. The data also shows that deep red states like Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana are among the states with the highest percentage of food stamp recipients.
Tracy Roof, a political scientist at the University of Richmond, said: “These narratives are being played out to show that nonprofits are getting the bulk of SNAP benefits, and thus making the suspension of SNAP benefits seem less critical. “The reality is that the vast majority of SNAP recipients are people who were born in the United States, and many of them are in families with children or are elderly or disabled. Of those who are able to work, most do.”
A chart released by an influential far-right X account with the screen name “The General” bolsters this conspiracy theory, showing that the vast majority of people receiving benefits are non-white immigrants, with Afghan, Somali, and Iraqi American residents making up the top three supposed recipients. The chart, originally published in June on a website called Personal Finance Wizards, is completely fictitious, according to PolitiFact. USDA does not aggregate the ethnicity of SNAP recipients beyond broad categories such as whites, African Americans, and Hispanics.
USDA data shows that almost 90 percent of SNAP recipients are US citizens. 1.1% of the recipients are refugees and another 3.3% are non-citizens.
The general’s post has been viewed 6.3 million times and has been widely shared by others, including the influential right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh, who quoted the post on X, writing: “We’re bringing in the third world and forcing working class Americans to feed and house them with guns. Civilizational suicide.” Other posts that also shared the chart were shared hundreds of thousands of times. X did not respond to a request for comment.
