Hundreds of refugee families connected to a San Antonio nonprofit have lost access to food stamps because their green cards have not yet arrived, even though many of them are legally entitled to the benefit the moment those cards show up. The families affected are often low-income households with several children, usually at least four, according to the Center for Refugee Services.
The gap traces back to a federal law change in 2025 that narrowed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility for certain noncitizens, cutting off refugees who have not yet adjusted to Lawful Permanent Resident status. Mary Field of the Center for Refugee Services told KSAT that families eligible for green cards are nonetheless ineligible for SNAP benefits simply because they do not yet hold the physical card. Field said the organization has identified a couple hundred San Antonio families within its client population who are affected while they wait months or, in some cases, years for their green cards to be processed.
Under Section 209 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, refugees are required to apply for a green card after being physically present in the United States for at least one year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That mandate is not optional, but the timeline for approval is largely out of applicants' hands. USCIS reported a median processing time of 7.7 months for refugee-based Form I-485 applications during fiscal year 2026 through May 31, though the nonprofit's own report notes that refugee-based green card applications can take considerably longer than that median.
Why the Green Card Itself Is the Trigger
The frustrating part of the policy, per federal guidance, is that refugees are exempt from the standard five-year waiting period that applies to many other green card holders before they can access SNAP. That means the moment a refugee's green card is issued, food assistance eligibility is restored immediately. Until that document arrives, however, families remain shut out of the program despite having no other legal barrier standing in their way.
The bottleneck is not financial. Federal immigration regulations exempt refugees applying for adjustment of status via Form I-485 from paying standard application and biometric fees, so the delay lies entirely within processing backlogs and background checks rather than cost. That distinction has become central to a broader legal fight: in November 2025, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general sued the USDA after the agency issued guidance suggesting refugees and asylees were permanently barred from SNAP even after receiving green cards, a case Hoodline detailed in its legal fight over USDA's SNAP guidance.
A Nonprofit Built From a School Program
The Center for Refugee Services has deep roots in San Antonio, having been established in 2010 after growing out of a parent advocacy program launched in 2008 by Communities In Schools of San Antonio using a Bank of America neighborhood action grant. Before 2021, the organization served about 900 people a year. That changed dramatically after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when the nonprofit began serving thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing the takeover.
Today the organization has about 6,300 active clients and serves between 30 and 50 people on a typical day, helping families navigate food assistance, healthcare, education, employment and immigration. It operates as an independent 501(c)(3) that receives no direct government funding, relying instead on private donations and volunteers. Field said CRS receives weekly emails and calls from student groups, faith groups and other community members looking for ways to help, and that broader San Antonio support, including faith groups and students, has helped the organization expand its work over the years.
Refugees Rebuilding Careers From Scratch
When families can't access SNAP, the Center for Refugee Services steps in with its own food pantry and refers families to other food pantries and community organizations to fill the gap. But the underlying obstacles many refugees face go beyond food access alone. Refugees with professional careers in their home countries often face education and occupational licensing requirements before they can work in the same fields in the United States, while language barriers make it difficult for some adults to find work and establish themselves.
Despite those hurdles, the arc for many families bends toward stability. Former CRS clients now work as teachers in San Antonio schools, and some volunteer at the organization that once helped them. Refugee youths served by the nonprofit are pursuing careers in nursing, dentistry, medicine and teaching, reflecting a broader pattern in Texas, where data compiled by the Center for Migration Studies found the state was home to at least 120,000 refugees, with 57% having become U.S. citizens and 95% of those in the labor force actively employed.
San Antonio has welcomed thousands of legally resettled refugees over the years, and those families and their children have become San Antonians in every sense, even as the food-assistance gap exposes how federal processing delays can undercut a benefit that Congress explicitly intended refugees to have. Similar strains have surfaced elsewhere as agencies adjust to the same 2025 rule change, including in Knoxville, where a nonprofit shifted resources to emergency food pantries after refugees lost SNAP access. Until the paperwork clears, San Antonio's Center for Refugee Services says it will keep filling in the gaps the federal system has left behind.
