Under Alabama’s harsh new immigration law, children of low-income undocumented immigrants are going hungry, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Center President Richard Cohen recently told Yahoo News that families are being denied food stamps because that cannot prove that they are legal residents. It did not make a difference that the food stamps were being used for their children who are U.S. citizens.

Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to take advantage of welfare benefits, such as food stamps, non-emergency Medicaid, and various other programs.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, about 4.5 million Americans citizens under the age of 18 have at least one parent who is in the country illegally.

Under Alabama’s law, it is also a felony for government employees to engage in business transactions with undocumented immigrants. As a result of broad interpretation of this part of the law, a number of immigrants have been unable to pay utility bills or taxes, because some officials say that would count as a “business transaction.”