Twenty-one Democratic attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from accessing data revealing the immigration statuses of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.
The lawsuit, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, says, “Never before, to Plaintiffs’ knowledge, has the federal government demanded that States turn over [Personal Identifying Information] on their entire SNAP caseloads, much less home address, social security number, immigration status, and day-to-day grocery purchase information for each and every SNAP applicant and recipient.” The attorneys general allege that the “longstanding policy and practice, which reflects statutory limits, abruptly changed recently when USDA demanded that States turn over virtually all of their SNAP applicant and recipient data for the past five years, including detailed ‘transactional records from each household,’ citing vague ‘program integrity’ concerns.”
The filing further claims that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “demands for SNAP data from states do not occur in a vacuum, but rather in the context of a number of similar moves by federal agencies to obtain and disclose highly sensitive [Personal Identifying Information], not for program purposes, but for the creation of a surveillance system to advance the President’s agenda, including by facilitating the President’s mass deportation efforts.”
Collecting SNAP data complies with President Trump’s executive order directing agency heads to ensure that the federal government has “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all State programs that receive Federal funding, including, as appropriate, data generated by those programs but maintained in third-party databases.”
“President Trump continues to weaponize private and sensitive personal information — not to root out fraud, but to create a culture of fear where people are unwilling to apply for essential services. We’re talking about kids not getting school lunch; fire victims not accessing emergency services; and other devastating, and deadly, consequences. That is Trump’s vision for America,” said Bonta. “This unprecedented demand that states turn over SNAP data violates all kinds of state and federal privacy laws and further breaks the trust between the federal government and the people it serves.”
“The President doesn’t get to change the rules in the middle of the game, no matter how much he may want to,” he argued. “While he may be comfortable breaking promises to the American people, California is not. We will not comply with this illegal demand. We’ll see the President in court.”
