States file lawsuit against Trump administration over efforts to collect SNAP recipients’ data

By KIMBERLY KINDY Associated Press Washington AP A coalition of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration s demand that their states turn over personal records of people enrolled in a federally funded food assistance campaign fearing the information will be used to aid mass deportations The information demand comes as the Trump administration has sought to collect private information on mostly lower-income people who may be in the country illegally It has already ordered the Internal Revenue System and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to share private information with the Department of Homeland Defense to aid in deportation efforts The U S Department of Agriculture informed states last week that it had until Wednesday to hand over the information for those enrolled in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Initiative or SNAP which serves more than million people nationwide The USDA revealed the facts will help it combat waste fraud and abuse The states lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the facts transfer In the meantime state attorneys general in the SNAP lawsuit announced they will not disclose what they consider to be private information of recipients including their immigration status birthdates and home addresses because they believe it would be a violation of privacy laws It s a bait-and-switch of the worst kind California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed in a Monday afternoon news conference announcing the lawsuit SNAP recipients provided this information to get help feeding their families not to be entered into a administration surveillance database or be used as targets in the president s inhumane immigration agenda Related Articles Trump seeks quick Murdoch deposition in Wall Street Journal lawsuit over Epstein story Trump says he s shortening the -day deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine Trump says Japan will invest billion in US at his direction It may not be a sure thing Trump plays golf in Scotland while protesters take to the streets and decry his visit Colorado to receive million in training funds Trump administration had frozen for nearly a month In May the department stated it was seeking the details as part of President Donald Trump s executive order to obtain facts from state programs to help root out fraud and waste For years this operation has been on autopilot with no USDA insight into real-time figures USDA Secretary Brooke L Rollins declared in a announcement at the time The Department is focused on appropriate and lawful participation in SNAP and nowadays s request is one of plenty of attempts to ensure SNAP is preserved for only those eligible USDA functionaries declined a request for comment on the suit The USDA did not mention immigration enforcement in the announcement or later notices It is not clear why USDA bureaucrats believe the details will help it weed out fraud and abuse The agency declares the undertaking is already one of the majority rigorous quality control systems in the federal administration Immigration advocates noted that the Trump administration has used the same argument to obtain other sensitive statistics only to later admit it would be using the information to enhance its deportation operations Trump administration administrators for example initially claimed they were seeking state Medicaid evidence to fight fraud Last week a top immigration official conceded they would be utilizing that same information to locate immigrants Agency executives have threatened to withhold SNAP funding if states fail to comply with their demand for content While immigrants without legal status are ineligible to receive SNAP benefits they can apply on behalf of their children who are U S citizens or those who are part of a mixed-status household Under the campaign formerly known as food stamps the federal regime pays for of the food benefits but the states help cover the administrative costs States are also responsible for determining whether individuals are eligible for benefits and for issuing those benefits to enrollees Immigration and records privacy advocates expressed alarm at the Trump administration s efforts to obtain sensitive SNAP details maintained by states The administration has all but advised us that their intention is to comb this content and use it for unlawful purposes that include immigration enforcement reported Madeline Wiseman an attorney with the National Participant Legal Defense Architecture which filed a lawsuit in May with privacy and hunger relief groups that are also challenging USDA s efforts for SNAP material