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Food4All is fighting against federal exclusions to food assistance based on immigration status

How HR 1 will worsen hunger in immigrant communities without state action

H.R. 1 Immigrant Eligibility Changes to CalFresh

On April 1st, 72,000 Californians began to lose access to CalFresh, due only to their status as humanitarian immigrants. Many are refugees, asylees, or survivors of trafficking who came here seeking safety from persecution and harm, and have since built their lives in our state. This new exclusion to food assistance comes as a result of the federal budget reconciliation act signed by Trump on July 4, 2025. This act, also called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” or H.R. 1, wreaked havoc on our federal social safety net with deep cuts to many public benefits programs in exchange for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, funding for immigrant detention, and mass deportation. Among the many harmful cuts it made, it severely limits access to our federal food assistance program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/CalFresh (in California), for humanitarian immigrants. 

Starting April 1st, 2026, individuals are no longer be eligible for CalFresh and will be denied benefits at application or at recertification if they are: 

• An Asylee;
• A Refugee;
• A Parolee (unless you are a CHE);
• An individual with deportation or removal withheld;
• A Conditional Entrant;
• A Survivor of Trafficking;
• A Battered Noncitizen;
• An Iraqi or Afghan with a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) who is not an LPR;
• A certain Afghan National granted parole between July 31, 2021 and September 30, 2023; or A certain Ukrainian National granted parole between February 24, 2022 and September 30, 2024

Updated May 2026: An estimated 6,000 Californians have already lost their CalFresh benefits since these cuts went into effect on April 1st, and 6,000 more will lose their CalFresh assistance each month thereafter. Without swift action at the state level, these 72,000 individuals will permanently lose access to food assistance.

What To Do If You Are Impacted

If you lose access to CalFresh due to HR 1, you may be eligible to adjust your immigration status to get a green card and ultimately naturalize, which would reestablish your eligibility for CalFresh. This eligibility varies greatly between cases. If you believe you may be eligible to adjust your status, you can seek one-on-one legal assistance with a knowledgeable attorney. Support can be found here: Immigration Legal Service Providers. U.S. Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) continue to be eligible for CalFresh. 

*For further clarity and information regarding  how this change might impact you/your family, please see the Frequently Asked Questions document created by CDSS CalFresh under “Resources” in this blog post. 

Impacts on Health & Wellbeing for California’s Immigrant Communities

Humanitarian immigrants are particularly vulnerable to the harm that results from losing access to the social safety net. For these communities, H.R. 1 severs one of the few trusted pathways to stability. Individuals granted humanitarian protection have survived extreme violence and upheaval to rebuild their lives in our state. Taking away access to food benefits during their resettlement undermines trust, cuts off vital support, and abandons them just as they are finding their footing in California. 

This harmful and hateful cut by the Trump administration doesn’t only impact these 72,000 individuals, of which, more than 1 in 3 are children – it has reverberating consequences for the wellbeing of their families, including cutting food support for close to 30,000 US citizen children and children with legal permanent residency in mixed status households. When children don’t have enough to eat, it has lasting negative consequences on their long-term health, educational attainment, and economic wellbeing. California’s immigrant communities deserve better than to bear the weight of the Trump administration’s discrimination and xenophobic policies.

This new exclusion by the Trump administration deepens an existing inequity in how immigrant communities seek stability through food assistance. Exclusions based on immigration status are a long-standing reality for communities throughout California, including those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or who are undocumented. Even while California grows more than half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, almost half of undocumented Californians do not have enough to eat. 

The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated in a March 2026 report that up to one million immigrant Californians are excluded from federal and state food assistance due solely to their immigration status. With new exclusions under H.R. 1, this number will continue to grow. California must not enable the generational harm that comes with unjust exclusions to food assistance, and instead forge a new path built on the values of immigrant inclusion.  

Solution: Remove Exclusions to Food Assistance Through Food4All 

Food4All is a statewide policy advocacy campaign that envisions and fights for a state where everyone has enough to eat, regardless of immigration status. Led by Nourish California, California Immigrant Policy Center, and a statewide coalition of immigrant rights, anti-hunger, and community leaders, Food4All is advocating for a state-funded food safety net that enables security and stability for everyone who calls California home. 

California can stand against the federal harm against immigrants by expanding our state-funded food assistance program. The California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) mirrors CalFresh to extend food benefits to those who are being unjustly excluded by the federal government. Food4All calls on California leaders to remove immigration status as a barrier to food benefits and ensure both newly excluded humanitarian immigrants and long excluded undocumented immigrants have access to the food they need and want.

Every single person who calls our state home deserves to feed themselves with dignity.