Democrats allegedly gave ‘illegals’ in Chicago $20K in government benefits. Here are the facts

In September 2026, a video posted by the conservative pundit Rob Smith appeared online claiming that Democrats were giving $20,000 in benefits to “illegals” in Chicago.

Snopes readers asked us to verify or disprove the claims made in the video, the latest in a long stretch of Republican-promoted rumors suggesting Democrats give large amounts of money or other benefits to immigrants living in the country without authorization. (Snopes fact-checked a version of that claim from the White House here). 

Oftentimes, as is the case here, such claims are accompanied by the idea that these payments are the first step in a Democratic-led plot to permanently control the federal government. 

The video presents its narrative without providing any additional evidence to support any of its claims, which are as follows:

1. Immigrants living in the country illegally receive $15,000 in food stamps from the government;
2. These immigrants receive $5,000 in cash from the government;
3. These immigrants receive free, government subsidized Wi-Fi;
4. The government covers these immigrants’ rent for two years;
5. Democrats give immigrants living in the country illegally these benefits as a sort of “bribe,” with the later goal of granting them the right to vote. The immigrants would then repay the favor by voting for Democrats in large numbers, effectively diluting the voting power of non-immigrant Americans and giving the party long-term control. 

We have refrained from rating this article because of the complexity of the claims in the video. Our research indicated that the first two claims were unfounded at best, while the third and fourth are exaggerated, though the fourth might have been the source behind the $15,000 figure. (The fifth claim is also unfounded, since it depends on the other four being true.)

We also noted that much of the rhetoric resembled common claims made during the last two years of President Joe Biden’s administration, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made a show of busing migrants entering the U.S. to cities like Chicago. Much of the reporting around these issues also came from that time, leading us to suspect that the interview took place in the lead-up to the 2024 election, rather than in 2026.

We were able to confirm the theory using a reverse image search. The original video first appeared on the Instagram (archived) and TikTok accounts of conservative social media personality Brooke Shirley in late August 2024. Shirley, the mother of conservative social media personality Nick Shirley, originally posted the video in the days following the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago. She has reposted the video at least twice since then.

As part of reporting this story, we contacted the Illinois Housing Development Authority, which ran a program that paid some rent costs for immigrants legally seeking asylum, though not to the extent suggested in the video. Our research suggested that program ended in late 2023. Snopes contacted IHDA to confirm that the program was no longer active. Andrew Field, an agency spokesperson, told us it processed its final applications in June 2024.

We also contacted Smith seeking clarification on the time discrepancy, since his September 2026 video never mentioned that the interview originally took place two years prior. We also asked whether Smith believed the policies described in the interview were active in 2026, but had not heard back. 

We also attempted to confirm that the interview featured in the video, conducted with a woman who said she lived on Chicago’s south side, was real — if it was instead generated using AI tools, for instance, the person who generated it could make the woman say anything, and therefore the video would not be a reliable source of information. We were able to geolocate the interview’s location to Chicago’s Grant Park using the word “Roosevelt” on the building to the left. That fact, combined with the posting date of Brooke Shirley’s original video, strongly suggested that the video was not an AI fake or otherwise misleadingly edited. 

Next, we investigated the claims themselves. 

Immigrants did not get $15,000 in food stamps

Immigrants who are in the country without authorization have never been eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the video’s assertion otherwise is not based on concrete evidence. 

SNAP eligibility is extended to some non-citizens, but there are strict requirements, which were made even more strict after the passage of the Trump administration’s much-touted “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget act in July 2025. 

The principal requirement is that an immigrant must have a permanent residency card and have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, or be under the age of 18. Prior to July 2025, however, there were exceptions for refugees and individuals granted asylum. Even before these exceptions were eliminated, however, the claim would still have been untrue. SNAP benefits are calculated using the number of individuals in a household (in 2024, for instance, a family of four could receive a maximum of $973 each month, or just over $11,500 per year, with money subtracted based on an individual’s household income. Immigration status does not factor into the calculation at all.

Immigrants are not getting $5,000 in cash

This claim also spread significantly around the time the video was originally shared.. It, too, is not based on any evidence. Snopes disproved a claim that immigrants got roughly $3,800 in 2017, and many prominent fact-checking organizations have disproved the claim that immigrants are getting $5,000 in cash or gift cards.

Furthermore, although exposing and cutting alleged wasteful government spending has been a major policy platform of the second Trump administration, there was no evidence the administration has identified or targeted programs matching the claims in the video.

Chicago has a free WiFi program … for families of students

It’s worth noting that many libraries in America, including the Chicago Public Library, offer on-site free WiFi and computer access to all patrons, regardless of immigration status.

However, we found that the city does offer a free home internet program that immigrants can access. The program is eligible for families of students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools who receive free or reduced meals, and there are no eligibility requirements based on immigration status. 

According to a city fact-sheet about the program, the internet access is valued at $10 per month — a drop in the bucket compared to the alleged $20,000 in benefits each immigrant allegedly receives. 

Chicago did pay some immigrants’ rent … for up to 6 months, or $15,000

Snopes found that in the fall of 2022, months after Greg Abbott’s busing program began, the state of Illinois did implement a program through the Illinois Housing Development Authority to cover the housing costs for the influx of migrants seeking asylum entering Chicago. (It should be noted that migrants are legally entitled to claim asylum, and therefore the description of these individuals as “illegal immigrants” is suspect at best).  The latest references to program online suggested that it expired in 2023. The IHDA confirmed that the program finished processing applications in June 2024 and is no longer operating.

However, contrary to the claim, this program did not cover rent for two years. Several outlets have separately investigated a similar claim about the government of Michigan, too. 

Instead, it covered a security deposit and rent for three months, with an optional extension for another three months, making six months in total. Applicants could receive a maximum of $15,000, which we suspect may have been the source of the food stamps figure.

According to an IHDA document detailing the program’s accomplishments, it gave $3.7 million in grants to 681 families by the beginning of 2023, and another $1.4 million went toward additional three-month extensions. The authority claimed households received an average of $6,369, which is significant, but still below the fictitious $15,000 in food stamps described previously. 

The program provided $53 million in rental assistance to 6,623 asylum seekers and families over the course of its lifespan, meaning that each successfully applicant received an average of just over $8,000.

One last note on this program: the IDHA’s program paid landlords directly wherever possible — the money for rental assistance offered through the program was not given to immigrants.

Conclusion

In sum, the claims were a combination of unfounded, outdated and exaggerated.

It is true that immigrants were eligible for some welfare programs in Chicago during the later years of Joe Biden’s presidency. However, the emergency housing program ended in 2024, while the additional restrictions on SNAP implemented by the Trump administration specifically bars refugees and asylum seekers — the individuals generally being incorrectly described as “illegal immigrants.” 

For more reading, we previously investigated a rumor that the government of Massachusetts gave $100 million to non-citizens.

Sources