(The Center Square) – New York Attorney General Leticia James is leading a group of Democrats suing the Trump administration over a requirement to turn over personal information about SNAP recipients.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, James and 20 other attorneys general argue that the Department of Agriculture’s recent guidance declaring that some immigrants, including refugees and those granted asylum, are ineligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is illegal. The AGs ask a federal judge to block enforcement of the policy.
In the 60-page complaint, the Democrats said the USDA’s new policy requiring non-citizens to have lived in the country for 5 years to receive SNAP benefits means that anyone entering the country – including those admitted through humanitarian protection programs for asylum seekers and refugees – would automatically be ineligible for temporary food assistance.
The USDA’s push to enforce the new rules also “threatens to destabilize SNAP nationwide,” according to the lawsuit, and puts a significant financial strain on states that would have to shoulder the cost of fines for violations.
The AGs pointed out that the Trump administration has been blocked by recent federal court rulings from accessing personal information of welfare recipients to probe for immigration violations.
“This Administration has used every means at its disposal to erode federal confidentiality protections and deploy unsubstantiated allegations of “fraud” in order to target plaintiff States’ anti-poverty programs, TANF included, and particularly to target the benefits these programs provide by law to qualified immigrants and children in immigrant communities,” the AGs wrote in the complaint.
“Courts have repeatedly enjoined the Administration’s prior efforts to share information in violation of federal confidentiality protections and to target disfavored benefit recipients,” the lawsuit states.
In October, the USDA issued new guidance to states curtailing SNAP eligibility for non-citizens, as it implemented spending cuts and expanded work requirements approved by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The Trump administration has threatened to withhold food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states unless those states provide information about recipients.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the time that the agency wants to “make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them” and also “to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected.” She has cited data showing that 186,000 deceased people are receiving SNAP benefits and another 500,000 have been getting double benefits.
In 2025, roughly 42 million people received food stamps to help pay for their groceries, or about one and eight Americans, according to the USDA. As of April, that number dropped to about 37 million, the agency said.
Other states that signed onto Monday’s lawsuit included California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
James, a Democrat who has sued the Trump administration more than 74 times, claims the Trump administration is “illegally” cutting off SNAP benefits – formerly known as food stamps – for tens of thousands of lawful permanent residents.
“The federal government’s shameful quest to take food away from children and families continues,” James said in the statement. “USDA has no authority to arbitrarily cut entire groups of people out of the SNAP program, and no one should go hungry because of the circumstances of their arrival to this country.”