Turning off the logistically complicated SNAP system—which relies on the federal government, states, and private companies to function in concert—and then trying to turn it back on quickly is no easy task.
Emma Janssen
Emma Janssen is a writing fellow at The American Prospect, where she reports on anti-poverty policy, health, and political power. Before joining the Prospect, she was at UChicago studying political philosophy, editing for The Chicago Maroon, and freelancing for the Hyde Park Herald.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Two Months of ICE Terror in Chicago
Chicago is a notoriously segregated city, which means that some neighborhoods have been completely transformed by ICE’s presence, while in non-Latino neighborhoods, it’s mostly been business as usual. But the response to the federal incursion knows no boundaries.
Posted inHousing
The Lost Dream of Obam-a-Lago
Long before the September 30 ICE raid, Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood had been ravaged by a series of sprawling apartment building pump-and-dump schemes, aided and abetted by industrial-scale mortgage fraud, old-fashioned government inaction, and a smattering of Venezuelan gangsters.
Posted inPolitics
After First Missed Paycheck, Federal Workers Call for Solidarity
With no end to the government shutdown in sight, federal workers are drawing down their savings accounts and retirement plans, and getting help from family members, food pantries, credit unions, and a variety of other sources.
Posted inLaw and Justice
How ICE Hides Detainees From Their Lawyers
CHICAGO – On September 12, attorney Kevin Herrera walked up to Chicagoland’s main Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, passed a crowd of protesters who didn’t know what to make of him, and knocked on the building’s boarded-up front door. No reply. Another knock; nothing. Then Herrera walked to the side […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Supermarket Shaping
Critics say Zohran Mamdani’s public grocery store proposal will never work. But Mamdani’s idea isn’t the problem—market consolidation is.
Posted inWorking in America
Nurses in Iowa Are Fighting an Unprecedented Anti-Union Campaign
Hospital system UnityPoint would rather spend millions on anti-union ‘educators’ than on safe staffing policies.
Posted inLaw and Justice
In Chicago, ICE Creates a Regime of Terror
On Friday, ICE agents killed a man in a suburb and fired pepper balls at peaceful protesters.
Posted inPolitics
DSA Convenes, Argues, and Celebrates
Energized by Zohran Mamdani’s primary triumph, 1,200 DSA members came to Chicago to chart the group’s future.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Do SNAP Food Restrictions Help Health, or Punish Poor People?
Indiana is among several states restricting the purchase of sugary foods with nutrition assistance funds.