WASHINGTON (AP) —Democratic state attorneys general are suing the Trump administration to keep SNAP food aid from being taken away from groups of permanent residents in the U.S., including people granted asylum or admitted as refugees.
The top state government lawyers from 21 states and the District of Columbia say in Wednesday’s suit that the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance to states in October calling for groups to be denied help from the food aid program even though Trump’s sweeping tax and policy law this summer didn’t specifically exclude them.
The states say the penalties for providing the benefits to excluded groups are so severe that they put states in danger of shutting down their SNAP programs entirely.
The filing in federal court in Oregon is the latest chapter in a battle over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the administration tried to pause during the government shutdown.