The month after President Donald Trump took office, applications for food-assistance benefits plummeted at El Centro in Kansas City, Kan.

Applications are down 74 percent in the last four months compared with the same time a year ago.

El Centro, a nonprofit group serving the Hispanic community in Wyandotte County, shared its SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) application data with The Star. Officials there say rhetoric denigrating Hispanics, and especially those of Mexican descent, caused the decrease. A fear of deportation is on many people’s minds.

“Saying you’re a Mexican is like a blasphemy these days,” said Cielo Fernandez, the chief program officer with El Centro. “People look at you like you’re a rapist or a drug dealer. … It’s so damaging.”

Lizbeth De Jesus, a program coordinator at El Centro who helps families apply for SNAP benefits, said most families she works with are mixed status, in which some members are undocumented and others are U.S. citizens who can qualify for the assistance.

But for those undocumented parents, sharing information with a governmental entity, even to legally apply for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for their children, causes too much anxiety.

“The fear of, ‘My information is there. I don’t know if the (government) will start looking into these databases,’ ” De Jesus said.

She added that the Kansas Department for Children and Families has assured her that SNAP applications will not be used to deport, but “nothing guarantees that,” she said.