"It is essential we use all available legal authority to end any incentives in FNS benefit programs that encourage illegal immigration."

"It is essential we use all available legal authority to end any incentives in FNS benefit programs that encourage illegal immigration."

US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday announced that she has directed officials to carry out Trump's executive order barring illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer benefits, including food benefit programs.

In a letter addressed to "state, Tribal, Territorial, and Local Government Partners," Rollins wrote that she was "committed" to fulfilling Trump’s executive order titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders."

"The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at the US Department of Agriculture plays an important role in providing nutrition services to vulnerable populations in the interest of our Nation. Program eligibility rules are determined by Congress. In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" which "generally prohibits illegal aliens from receiving Federal benefits, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits," Rollins wrote. 

"With its enactment, illegal aliens in the United States should not depend on taxpayer dollars to take care of their needs. President Trump’s Executive Order reaffirms this important national policy—and puts the needs of Americans first," she continued. "It is essential we use all available legal authority to end any incentives in FNS benefit programs that encourage illegal immigration. The President has made clear the status quo is not acceptable."

Rollins wrote that she has directed senior staff at FNS to "review the public benefit programs it administers at the Federal level to ensure alignment with the President’s Executive Order," and that after the review, "FNS will implement necessary changes so all its programs are consistent with Federal law, including PRWORA."

"FNS will also work to revise public messaging so that information about program eligibility is accurate and does not encourage illegal aliens to use public benefit programs. Furthermore, FNS will take measures to improve eligibility verification and deter fraud."

Under the prior Biden administration, the Department of Agriculture directed state agencies and Food and Nutrition Act program operators to “expeditiously review their program discrimination complaint procedures and make any changes necessary to ensure complaints alleging discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation are processed and evaluated as complaints of discrimination on the basis of sex," a 2022 memo stated.

The USDA wrote on its website that it "will interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008… to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity." To receive federal funding for school lunches under this, they were required to change their state-specific non-discrimination statements to include sexual orientation and gender identity language. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s interpretation of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act in August.

Less than a month before the election, then-Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance said of the issue, "I think it’s crazy to allow biological males to compete in sports with biological females,” Vance said. “But even if you disagree with me, I think that it is such a terrible thing to take food out of the mouths of poor children because they don’t do what the Biden-Harris administration wants them to do,” he continued.