New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of democratic state attorneys general filed lawsuits against the federal government. It’s James’s 74th lawsuit. This one challenges Trump administration policies that restrict illegal immigrant access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and demand private recipient data for immigration enforcement.
Democrat-led states insist they won’t share the data. However, the federal government is entitled to the data as long as it funds the program.
The Democrats constantly refer to the restrictions on illegal immigrants as merely “immigrants.”
In the 60-page complaint in early August, 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.
According to federal rules, people here illegally or who are losing TPS protection should not be getting SNAP at all.
SNAP recipients have blown up from 17 million to over 42 million since 2005. It is a 147% increase. A CIS study found that 48% of households headed by an undocumented immigrant used at least one food assistance program. People here illegally are added to the rolls, as are dead people, able-bodied people, and the federal government wants to check the rolls.
