User:ConnorGW/CalFresh

Eligibility for California Immigrants
As part of large-scale federal welfare reform in 1996, most legal immigrants in California lost their eligibility for food stamps through the CalFresh program. Many activists criticized the change as a political attack on immigration rather than a substantive effort to improve fiscal responsibility. Since then, access to food subsidy benefits have been mostly returned through the California Food Assistance program (CFAP). Under CalFresh, parents who are undocumented can apply for food stamps on behalf of their US-citizen children. Increased food subsidy access for undocumented immigrants will arrive soon after state-level legislative changes. The passage of Assembly Bill 135 is set to increase access to CFAP benefits for all California residents aged 55 years or older, regardless of immigration status.

There are about 2.3 million undocumented immigrants in California, and around 45% of undocumented immigrants and 64% of undocumented children are food insecure. These numbers are bolstered by the fact that undocumented children and DACA enrollees are ineligible for food stamp benefits. Policy advocacy organizations such as Nourish California are pushing the state government to expand state funding to cover all eligible undocumented immigrants to lower hunger in the state. Only about 11% of California's unauthorized immigrant population is over the age of 55.