Oregon Sues to Stop Trump Officials From Accessing Names and Addresses of Food Stamp Recipients

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Trump Administration’s illegal demands to the states that they hand over the sensitive personal data of SNAP recipients.

Oregon AG Files Lawsuit Against Illegal Demand For SNAP Recipients’ Personal Data

A coordinated effort by the federal government to collect personal information on Americans from every possible source- to be used to advance this President’s agenda- has been pursued since President Trump re-entered the White House in January.

Public reports indicate that federal officials are amassing massive databases of personal information on Americans and using that data for undisclosed purposes, including immigration enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security has already obtained troves of personal information from both the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Health and Human Services Agency.

But the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to collect unrelated, protected data of SNAP recipients to fuel their mass deportation machine faces a blockade in the form of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 20 attorneys general, including Oregon.

The suit protests the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) demand that states turn over personal and sensitive information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.

Tens of millions of low-income families across the country rely on the federally funded, state-administered SNAP program, which provides billions of dollars in food assistance. SNAP applicants provide their private information on the understanding that their data will not be used for unrelated purposes- backed by long-standing state and federal laws.

Undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible to receive SNAP benefits, but immigrants who have citizen children may and often do seek benefits on their children’s behalf.

States have administered SNAP for 60 years and, until USDA’s recent about turn, the federal government and state agencies have worked together to build a robust process to ensure that only eligible individuals receive benefits.

USDA’s systems do not, and have never, required that states turn over sensitive, personally identifying information about millions of Americans without any meaningful restrictions on how that information is used or shared with other agencies.

But the May 2025 unprecedented demand that states turn over massive amounts of personal information on all SNAP applicants and recipients, including social security numbers and home addresses, dating back five years, means the states are now effectively forced to choose between protecting their residents’ privacy and providing critical nutrition assistance to those in need.

Attorney General Dan Rayfield said:

Oregonians shouldn’t have to give up their privacy to put food on the table.

The AGs coalition argues that the USDA demands:

• Violate multiple federal privacy laws;
• Fail to meet the public comment requirements for this type of action;
• Exceed USDA’s statutory authority;
• Violate the Spending Clause.

The coalition asked the District Court to declare the Trump Administration’s demands unlawful and block the Trump Administration from conditioning receipt of SNAP funding on states’ compliance with these demands.