Attorneys general from Democrat states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from enforcing new SNAP eligibility rules that took effect Nov. 1 — a policy designed to limit benefits to some qualified legal residents while preventing illegal migrants from accessing taxpayer-funded assistance.
The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, targets an Oct. 31 USDA guidance memo that implements provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.
The guidance narrows eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, excluding most noncitizens — including many migrants who originally entered the U.S. through humanitarian parole, asylum claims or other temporary protection categories.
Under the new rules, SNAP eligibility is reserved for U.S. citizens, green-card holders (subject to traditional requirements), Cuban and Haitian entrants, and citizens of the COFA nations.
The USDA also ordered states to conduct stricter verification checks to ensure illegal immigrants do not receive benefits, reversing the expansive eligibility interpretations used under the Biden administration.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said recently her department informed all 50 states with an order, "saying, no more illegal aliens on SNAP, period, full stop. So that's already a rule of this administration. We're working to enforce it every single day."
Democrat AGs claim the memo "illegally cuts off benefits" for tens of thousands of residents who later became lawful permanent residents after entering through humanitarian pathways. They argue the USDA went beyond what the law authorizes by making those immigrants permanently ineligible for food assistance.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oregon, argues that the USDA wrongly reclassified "several groups of legal immigrants" as ineligible and failed to give states adequate time to implement the changes.
The AGs say states were given just one day to comply — a move the AGs say risks "destabilizing SNAP nationwide" and leaving states vulnerable to federal penalties — rather than the usual 120 days.
In fact, states were given the full 120 days required by law, because Section 10108 of the OBBB became effective the moment the bill was signed.
The lawsuit was joined by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, maintains that SNAP was never intended for illegal immigrants and that the new rules restore long-standing statutory limits on eligibility.
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