Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block a new policy they say will unlawfully cut off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for certain lawful immigrants, including refugees and people granted asylum.
The lawsuit argues that the administration — including Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins — is trying to enforce restrictions that Congress never approved, putting already vulnerable families at greater risk of hunger.
“It’s wild that we’re here the day before Thanksgiving,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who is leading the suit, said in a press release. “We’re the wealthiest country in the world, and no one should go hungry. When this memo came out, we thought it must be a mistake. The law is clear, and this is not how you treat people.”
Why It Matters
This challenge is the latest flashpoint in ongoing conflicts between state officials and the federal government over how SNAP is administered. Earlier this year, the administration attempted to pause the program during the government shutdown, raising alarms among anti-hunger advocates and state agencies that rely on federal dollars to fund monthly food assistance.
State leaders now say the new guidance could unlawfully strip food benefits from thousands of eligible households, including families with legal immigration status, and create chaos in state-run systems that administer SNAP.
What’s in the Lawsuit
Filed in federal court in Oregon, the suit targets guidance the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued to states on October 31, explaining how to implement parts of a recent tax and spending law.
According to the complaint, the USDA’s instructions distort what Congress actually changed and go well beyond its legal mandate. The states say the guidance wrongly reclassifies “several groups of legal immigrants as ineligible for food assistance,” including lawful permanent residents who first entered the country as refugees or were granted asylum.
Attorneys general say they asked the USDA last week to revise or withdraw the guidance, but received no response. In the meantime, they claim state agencies have been forced to scramble to interpret rules they believe are unlawful and that could abruptly remove benefits from qualifying families.
The lawsuit also accuses the USDA of failing to give states sufficient time to adjust. Under federal rules, states usually get 120 days to implement new eligibility requirements without facing major financial penalties. In this case, the complaint says, the USDA gave states just one day to comply — far too little time to update computer systems, notify recipients, or evaluate the real-world impact of the changes.
When the new policy was announced in July, Rollins framed it as a way to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits, even though such cases are reportedly rare and most non-permanent residents do not qualify for SNAP in the first place. She said the tighter rules were part of the administration’s efforts to carry out Trump’s “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders” executive order.
State officials warn that the penalties for providing benefits to people the USDA now labels ineligible are so severe that states could feel pressured to halt their SNAP programs entirely if they cannot comply in time. That risk, they argue, makes it critical for the court to block the guidance while the case is heard.
In addition to Oregon, the lawsuit is backed by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
What People Are Saying
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a Wednesday press release: “The federal government’s shameful quest to take food away from children and families continues. 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. My office will always fight to protect Americans’ SNAP benefits, and I will do everything in my power to shield New Yorkers from this unlawful policy.”
Matthew Dickerson, director of Budget Policy at the Economic Policy Innovation Center, told Newsweek in October: “I think many Americans are shocked to learn that the federal government is spending so much of their hard-earned tax dollars on welfare for non-citizens.”
What’s Next
The suit asks Federal District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, a Biden appointee, to vacate the USDA guidance and block its enforcement while the court reviews the policy.
