SNAP Fraud Crackdown: What ICE and DOJ Cases Show

Two federal announcements this week tied SNAP fraud to immigration enforcement. The documents behind them show a narrower link than the headlines suggest.

The Trump administration’s SNAP fraud crackdown now runs on two tracks: an ICE operation aimed at noncitizens accused of taking food stamp benefits, and a Justice Department surge that brought cases against more than 40 defendants over nearly $42 million in SNAP losses. Both were announced on Oct. 20 and 21 and both were framed around immigrants in the country illegally, yet most of the cases the Justice Department listed involve store owners, card skimmers and identity thieves, and only one describes its defendants as unlawfully present.

The gap matters because a fraud conviction carries immigration consequences far heavier than the sentence, and because the crackdown arrives just over a year after Congress narrowed which noncitizens can get SNAP at all.

Five ICE arrests and a $42 million DOJ tally

The DHS side. In a statement dated Oct. 21, DHS said ICE had arrested five people, four from Haiti and one from Cuba, and that “every one of these individuals entered the country unlawfully.” The department called the arrests “the opening salvo in a sustained, large-scale ICE operation.” Fox News first reported the operation late on Oct. 20. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the benefit programs “are for Americans only.” DHS did not say where the arrests happened, how much money was involved or whether anyone faces criminal charges.

The Justice Department side. A separate Oct. 21 release from the department’s fraud division and USDA described a surge running from Sept. 1 to Oct. 21 across 13 federal districts plus a Utah state case, with about $45 million in intended losses, nearly $42 million of it SNAP fraud. Vice President JD Vance, who leads the administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, presented the results with Attorney General Todd Blanche at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office, WVXU reported. The release’s headline says the surge involved “suspected illegal aliens.”

Case (court)	Alleged SNAP loss	Alleged scheme	Status or nationality stated
Yaseen and Kanaan (S.D. Ohio)	$29.7 million	Fake transactions at Chicago stores using stolen EBT data	Not stated
New (N.D. Ga.)	$4.4 million	Food stamp, access device and identity fraud	Not stated
Dumitru et al. (D. Or.)	$4.4 million (intended)	Card-skimming crew; 12 sentenced	Most were Romanian nationals unlawfully present
Qahtan et al. (N.D. Ohio)	$1 million	Gas station trading benefits for cash and marijuana	Citizens of Yemen
Fernandez Guzman (D. Mass.)	$22,402	Stolen identity used for SNAP and other benefits	Dominican national

Selected cases from Justice Department press release 26-1238, Oct. 21, 2026. The last column reflects only what the release states. Charges are allegations unless a defendant has pleaded guilty or been sentenced.

The single largest case, at $29.7 million, accounts for about 71 percent of the SNAP total, a calculation from the department’s own figures. Most listed schemes are retailer trafficking or theft from legitimate recipients, not ineligible people enrolling. No agency has linked the five people DHS named to the Justice Department’s cases.

Which immigrants can still get SNAP

People without lawful status have never qualified for SNAP. The 2025 reconciliation law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, went further. Its Section 10108 limits eligibility to citizens and nationals, lawful permanent residents (generally after five years, with exceptions for children and some others), Cuban and Haitian entrants, and citizens of the Compact of Free Association nations. Refugees, asylees and most parolees lost eligibility unless they become green card holders, a cutoff that parallels the loss of ACA premium subsidies on Jan. 1.

Even before the change, USDA’s fiscal 2023 household report counted 1.1 percent of participants as refugees and 3.3 percent as other noncitizens, PolitiFact noted. USDA put the fiscal 2025 SNAP payment error rate at 10.62 percent, or $10.1 billion, but that counts overpayments and underpayments alike and is not a fraud measure.

The entrant category is why missing status details matter. Haitians and Cubans paroled into the country can qualify as entrants and remain eligible, and DHS has said only that the five it named entered unlawfully. Whether any held such a status decides whether the allegation is ineligible enrollment or some other kind of fraud.

Why a fraud case weighs more for noncitizens

For a noncitizen, the conviction can matter more than the sentence. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an offense involving fraud or deceit with a loss to victims above $10,000 is an aggravated felony. That makes a green card holder deportable, blocks most forms of relief from removal and permanently bars the good moral character needed for naturalization. Fraud offenses below that threshold are generally treated as crimes involving moral turpitude, which can also trigger removal or inadmissibility. Most of the losses in the Justice Department’s list are well above the $10,000 line, though the release does not say which defendants are noncitizens.

What to watch as DHS promises more arrests

DHS called the arrests a first wave, part of a push that includes ICE’s target of 3,000 arrests a day and a worksite enforcement plan built on Form I-9 audits. The open questions are practical: whether DHS publishes arrest totals, locations and dollar figures that can be checked against court records, and whether the ICE arrests lead to criminal charges or only to removal cases. The State Department’s 300,000 visa revocations and the Justice Department’s noncitizen voter list show how headline counts can face scrutiny once details emerge. Court filings will show how much of the SNAP crackdown concerns immigrants and how much concerns fraud anyone could commit.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds a LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Deigo and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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