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 information of people enrolled in a federally funded food assistance scheme 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 Operation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to share private information with the Department of Homeland Safeguard to aid in deportation efforts The U S Department of Agriculture described states last week that it had until Wednesday to hand over the content for those enrolled in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Operation or SNAP which serves more than million people nationwide The USDA mentioned the material will help it combat waste fraud and abuse The states lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the details transfer In the meantime state attorneys general in the SNAP lawsuit noted 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 announced 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 authorities surveillance database or be used as targets in the president s inhumane immigration agenda Related Articles Court restricts who can bring voting rights challenges in a circumstance involving voters with disabilities Trump says he ended friendship with Epstein because he stole people that worked for me Trump is getting the world commercial sector he wants but the vulnerability to advance could spoil his triumph lap Trump seeks quick Murdoch deposition in Wall Street Journal lawsuit over Epstein story Judge blocks Trump administration s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood In May the department disclosed it was seeking the records as part of President Donald Trump s executive order to obtain input from state programs to help root out fraud and waste For years this scheme has been on autopilot with no USDA insight into real-time information USDA Secretary Brooke L Rollins revealed in a comment at the time The Department is focused on appropriate and lawful participation in SNAP and at present s request is one of a large number of approaches to ensure SNAP is preserved for only those eligible USDA representatives 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 authorities believe the material will help it weed out fraud and abuse The agency suggests the undertaking is already one of the majority of rigorous quality control systems in the federal cabinet 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 leaders for example initially claimed they were seeking state Medicaid material to fight fraud Last week a top immigration official conceded they would be utilizing that same information to locate immigrants Agency functionaries have threatened to withhold SNAP funding if states fail to comply with their demand for facts 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 initiative formerly known as food stamps the federal governing body 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 statistics privacy advocates expressed alarm at the Trump administration s efforts to obtain sensitive SNAP records maintained by states The administration has all but informed us that their intention is to comb this statistics and use it for unlawful purposes that include immigration enforcement explained Madeline Wiseman an attorney with the National Novice Legal Defense Configuration which filed a lawsuit in May with privacy and hunger relief groups that are also challenging USDA s efforts for SNAP evidence