Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture over the inability for migrants to access Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
On October 31, the USDA issued new guidance to state SNAP agencies describing the changes, which narrowed SNAP eligibility for some migrant groups.
“In July 2025, Congress enacted H.R.1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which narrowed the categories of non-citizens who are eligible for SNAP benefits, and which simultaneously created a set of massive penalties tied to State error rates in issuing payments to SNAP beneficiaries,” the lawsuit states, adding that the October guidance “goes beyond the Act, arbitrarily excluding from SNAP many lawful permanent residents who remain eligible under the statutory scheme established by Congress.”
According to the filing, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) “excludes individuals who were admitted as refugees, granted asylum, had their deportation withheld, and others, from the five-year waiting period. And no provision of the OBBB amended PRWORA’s exemptions from its five-year waiting period.”
States involved in the lawsuit include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.
Earlier this month, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins revealed that thousands of deceased individuals have been receiving SNAP benefits. Nearly half a million people have also been receiving double the amount of benefits under the same name.
Half a million people getting benefits two times under the same name. Five thousand dead people, 80% of the able-bodied Americans, meaning they can work, they don’t have small children at home, they’re not taking care of an elderly parent,” Rollins told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, citing data provided by 29 states. “They can work, and they choose not to work, of course, because they’re getting significant benefits from the taxpayer,” she asserted.
