By the time President Bill Clinton took office in 1992, hysteria surrounding so-called “illegal immigrants” had reached a crisis point. In 1994, President Clinton instituted a series of enforcement measures designed to stem illegal crossings, and voters in California passed Proposition 187 (which was later overturned by the Supreme Court), barring undocumented immigrants from accessing social services.

While most legal immigrants were eligible for food stamps, after 1996, they were barred from receiving most federal benefits until they had been in the country for five years. Food stamp eligibility was later restored for certain legal immigrants, but despite popular claims to the contrary, undocumented immigrants have been — and continue to be — explicitly barred from all federal assistance programs.