When Food-Stamp Fraud Crosses State Lines

Since 2024, Michigan has paid more than $4 million in food-stamp funding to people with out-of-state addresses

Letter to The WSJ. 

"The Journal’s editorial board is right to celebrate the decline in food-stamp enrollment due to work requirements and efforts to combat fraud ("The Food Stamp Rolls Decline—Hurray,” Review & Outlook, June 8). To put a finer point on the fraud that the Trump administration is trying to root out, consider what my organization recently discovered in Michigan.

We found that since 2024 Michigan has paid more than $4 million in food-stamp funding to people with out-of-state addresses. That’s despite a law requiring that program recipients live in-state. The problem has grown worse each year. Out-of-state payments rose from $1.6 million in 2024 to $1.9 million in 2025. The number of out-of-state recipients is on track to rise from nearly 3,200 last year to 3,700 this year.

Under Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan has refused to share food-stamp data with the Trump administration. When will states like Michigan finally get serious about protecting taxpayers from waste, fraud and abuse?

Jarrett Skorup

Mackinac Center"