Healthy Babies at Risk, Warn Experts, as Trump Fearmongering Drives Immigrant Families Off Nutrition Assistance Program

Three months after President Donald Trump proposed penalizing immigrants for using public assistance programs, families appear to have received his message loud and clear—likely risking the health of young immigrant children across the country.

As Politico reported on Monday, providers of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has noted a sharp decline in at least 18 states in the use of its benefits by families who immigrated to the United States. 

The program offers infant formula and food to low-income pregnant women and families with new babies and young children, as well as supporting women who are breastfeeding. WIC serves about half of all babies born in the United States.

Enrollment in the program dropped from 7.4 million when Trump took office to 6.8 million in May. While multiple factors may have driven the overall reduction, more than a dozen WIC providers across the nation told Politico that the decline in participation among immigrant families has been stark:

One agency in Longview, Texas reported losing 75 to 90 percent of participants per month, while a provider in Beacon, New York told the outlet its caseload had decreased by about 20 percent.

“The big concern for all of us in the WIC community is that this program is really about growing healthy babies,” Rev. Douglas Greenaway, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, told Politico. “When any population that’s potential eligible for this program is either driven away by changes in regulation or legislation or simply by political rhetoric inducing fear there are huge personal consequences to those babies and their families.”