Democrat Rep. Jayapal Sparks Backlash After Saying Illegal Immigrants Avoid Food Banks
'Yesterday I was at a food bank in my district talking about the SNAP cuts, the horrible SNAP cuts and Medicaid cuts, and they told me that people are not even showing up to Head Start where they get their food,' Jayapal said during a podcast appearance on the MeidasTouch Network.
But she didn't stop there.
'They're not showing up to the food banks because they're afraid — and it's not just undocumented immigrants, it is. People of all legal statuses. It's undocumented immigrants who have been here for 20 years,' she added, stumbling through the remark — a comment critics said appeared to contradict her party's narrative.
Online critics quickly seized on the remark as confirmation of something Democrats have long denied: that illegal aliens are receiving taxpayer-funded benefits, including food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — a program Jayapal passionately supports.
Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from directly receiving SNAP benefits. However, in mixed-status households — where children born in the U.S. are citizens but their parents are undocumented — benefits can legally support the household, indirectly aiding the adults as well.
Democratic leaders continue to insist that SNAP benefits are limited to those who qualify under federal law. But Jayapal's unscripted admission has cast fresh doubt on those claims.
For many Americans, especially during a rising national debt and concerns over the influx of illegal immigration, the idea that benefits may be quietly extended to non-citizens, many of whom do not pay federal income taxes, is deeply troubling.
This isn't the first time Jayapal has found herself under fire this month.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials pushed back after Jayapal referred to the agency as a 'terrorist force' in a July 1 Instagram post — sparking widespread backlash.
In a separate interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar, Jayapal doubled down, claiming that U.S. citizens were being detained by masked ICE agents without proper oversight — a claim ICE officials have called completely unfounded.
Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons slammed the remarks as 'reckless' and 'dangerous,' noting a 700% rise in assaults on ICE officers, which he added is only worsened by Jayapal's negative remarks. Not only that, Lyons also highlighted how Jayapal's response came after a genuine terrorist attack on the ICE processing center in her own state.
'An actual Antifa terrorist tried to blow up ICE's Northwest Processing Center in Rep. Jayapal's home state of Washington in 2019. At the time, she tried to blame the violent attack on rhetoric from the right, in defense of an actual terrorist who tried to murder detainees and employees alike!' Lyons said in a statement published two days after Jayapal's post referring to ICE as terrorists.
'Now, she labels ICE officers enforcing immigration law set by Congress 'terrorists.' This, at a time when officers are facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults, in part due to the type of rhetoric she spews,' Lyons added.
Voters in Washington may want to ask whether Jayapal is more interested in representing her district — or booking interviews to make provocative statements. Either way, Jayapal's recent comments have added fuel to an already heated national debate over immigration, enforcement, and entitlement programs.
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