Project:
Food Stamp Receipt by Families With Noncitizen Household Heads in Rural Texas Counties
Year: 2002
Research Center: Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State University
Investigator: White, Steve, Xiuhong You, Steve H. Murdock, and Tami Swenson
Institution: Texas A&M University
Project Contact:
Steve White, Assistant Research Scientist
Texas A&M University
Department of Rural Sociology
College Station, TX 77843-2125
Phone: 979-845-8528
smurdock@rsocsun.tamu.edu
Summary:
The 1996 welfare reform legislation eliminated the
eligibility of most legal immigrants to receive food
stamps, although it did make exceptions based on a
legal immigrant’s refugee status, work history, or U.S.
veteran status. Subsequent legislation in 1997 allowed
legal immigrants who were disabled, elderly, or children
living in the United States in August 1996 to
regain eligibility for the Food Stamp Program (FSP).
More recently, the 2002 Farm Act restored food stamp
eligibility to legal noncitizens who have lived in the
United States continuously for at least 5 years or who
are children or disabled, regardless of how long they
have lived in the United States.
In 2000, noncitizens made up almost 10 percent of the
population in Texas. Noncitizens were more than twice
as likely as citizens to live in poor households.
Although noncitizens in Texas are concentrated in
metropolitan areas, about 5 percent of people in
nonmetropolitan counties are noncitizens. Because of
the large noncitizen population in Texas, the elimination
of the eligibility of most noncitizens to receive
food stamps would be expected to have a large impact
on the State’s FSP caseload. This study examined the
decline in the number of households in Texas headed
by a noncitizen that participated in the FSP between
1995 and 2001 and the factors that contribute to the
decline. It also compared the decline in the noncitizen
FSP caseload in metropolitan counties with the decline
in nonmetropolitan counties.
The study found that the number of FSP households in
Texas declined 45 percent between 1995 and 2001,
while the number of FSP households headed by a
noncitizen declined 72 percent. The proportion of
elderly household heads among noncitizen FSP households
increased from 10 percent in 1995 to almost 25
percent in 2001, a trend that is consistent with the
restoration of FSP eligibility to elderly noncitizens.
The authors used monthly FSP administrative caseload
data to examine the factors associated with the decline
in the noncitizen FSP caseload. While the eligibility
restrictions contribute to much of the decline, the
authors find that other factors, such as demographic
characteristics and program changes, also contribute to
the decline. Noncitizen FSP households are less likely
to leave the program when the household is larger, and
when the head is older, female, and has low levels of
education and income. The study results indicate that
these demographic characteristics have a slightly
stronger effect on citizen FSP households than on
noncitizen FSP households. Noncitizen FSP households
that live in a nonmetropolitan county are less
likely to leave the FSP than those that live in metropolitan
counties, and metropolitan status has a stronger
effect on noncitizen FSP households than it does on
citizen FSP households. The authors also examined
whether the frequency with which households must
recertify their eligibility for the FSP has a differential
effect on noncitizen FSP households. Regardless of
citizenship status, the more frequently FSP households
must recertify eligibility, the more likely they are to
exit the program. However, the effect of a more
frequent recertification policy is stronger on citizen
FSP households than on noncitizen FSP households.
The study results indicate that restrictions placed on FSP
eligibility of noncitizens are responsible for a large
share of the decline in their use of food stamps, but that
other factors, such as increasing income, also contributed
to the decline. This finding implies that noncitizens
respond to changes in economic conditions in ways
similar to citizens. One notable difference is that residence
in a nonmetropolitan county reduces the probability
that a noncitizen FSP household leaves the
program by more than it reduces the probability that a
citizen FSP household leaves the program. This suggests
that research focus on whether county-level program
administration or economic conditions have different
effects on citizen and noncitizen FSP households.