MAZON Statements

Leading anti-hunger advocates praised President Joe Biden’s executive action to begin a review of immigration guidelines including the previous administration’s public charge rule that punished immigrants for using public benefits such as SNAP. Calling the action the first step towards reversing harmful policies from the previous administration that denied the most vulnerable in our country to their most basic needs, Abby J. Leibman, President & CEO of MAZON, issued the following statement in a joint release with other partners:

“We applaud President Biden’s commitment to ensuring all people in this country, including immigrants, have access to the most basic of human needs: enough food to eat. We were appalled and angered at the previous administration’s heartless public charge rule which was not only inconsistent with American values, it was abhorrent to American Jews. 

“As the Jewish anti-hunger organization, we could not stand idly by so we joined with other partners in taking legal action to oppose the proposed changes to the public charge laws. The righting of this wrong by the Biden administration renews our faith that our government will not turn its back on the most vulnerable among us. We look forward to working with the new administration to expand access to life-sustaining benefits such as SNAP.”

MAZON has a track record of advocating for those impacted by the public charge rule. In 2018, MAZON submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security when the rule was first proposed and in September 2019, MAZON joined an amicus brief for the lawsuit that was filed in the Northern District of California. The brief focused on the impact that the rule would have on older Americans, which was specifically noted in federal courts’ opinions when they issued temporary injunctions the following month.