Mass. joins lawsuit over SNAP benefits for immigrants

By Christian M. Wade

» Statehouse Reporter

BOSTON — Massachusetts has joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a requirement to turn over personal information about SNAP recipients.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 22 other Democratic attorneys general argue that the Department of Agriculture’s recent guidance declaring that some immigrants are ineligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is illegal.

They ask the court to block the Trump administration from enforcing the policy.

The AGs’ complaint claims the USDA’s new policy requiring non-citizens to be living in the country for five years to receive SNAP benefits means that anyone coming into the country would automatically be ineligible for temporary food assistance. That includes individuals accepted through humanitarian protection programs for asylum seekers and refugees.

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 those receiving the assistance.

Agriculture Secretary

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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 SNAP — formerly known as food stamps — to help pay for their groceries, or about 1 in 8 eight Americans, according to the USDA.

As of April, that number dropped to about 37 million, the federal agency said.

Other states that signed onto the AG’s lawsuit included California, Connecticut, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Campbell, a Democrat who has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times, claims the Trump administration is “illegally” cutting off SNAP benefits for tens of thousands of lawful permanent residents.

“Families should be able to apply for assistance without worrying that their personal information will be shared across the federal government or used for unrelated purposes,:” Campbell said. “When people are afraid to seek help, children and families pay the price, and the safety net Congress created is weakened for everyone who relies on it.”

Christian M. Wade covers Massachusetts state government and politics for CNHI News and North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.