ASSOCIATED PRESS VIA DAILY MAIL
- Phoeniz, AZ, pastor Antonio Velasquez says people used to line up from ‘3 in the morning’ to apply for food stamps and Medicaid at Maryvale district state office
- But no one lined up one recent weekday morning, and there were just a handful of people inside
- Velasquez says change is because of new rules that disqualify more people from green cards if they use government benefits
- He fears immigrants, including citizens and legal residents, have dropped social services they or their children may be entitled to out of fear of being deported
- But Trump administration says the change is ‘not a moral judgment on individuals, it is an economic one.’
- Deputy Homeland Security secretary Ken Cuccinelli said the government expects immigrants to ‘be able to stand on their own two feet.’
Pastor Antonio Velasquez says that before the Trump administration announced a crackdown on immigrants using government social services, people lined up before sunrise outside a state office in a largely Latino Phoenix neighborhood to sign up for food stamps and Medicaid. No more. ‘You had to arrive at 3 in the morning, and it might take you until the end of the day,’ he said, pointing behind the office in the Maryvale neighborhood to show how long the lines got. But no one lined up one recent weekday morning, and there were just a handful of people inside.
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