Twenty-one Democratic states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over the new Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility requirements that they say block groups of legal immigrants from accessing the program.
One disputed provision would require green-card holders to wait five years before becoming eligible for SNAP. Another would make legal permanent residents, including refugees and asylum seekers, permanently ineligible for the program. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to block the USDA from putting the new guidance into effect.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, states:
The Guidance is arbitrary and capricious because the Defendants failed to provide a reasoned explanation for why the agency was changing its position as to whether individuals who have had the following status were subject to the five-year waiting period: Refugees, Individuals Granted Asylum, Deportation Withheld, and other groups that have the same eligibility as Refugees under statute.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, fresh off a brief dismissal of an indictment, wrote in a statement Wednesday:
USDA’s interpretation could saddle states with fines so extreme that some warn they could be forced to shut down their SNAP programs entirely — a disastrous outcome that would leave millions of Americans without access to the nation’s most essential anti-hunger program.
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Officials also argued that the USDA had not granted the required 120-day grace period after issuing the new eligibility requirements. This left states scrambling to implement the changes overnight.
“The federal administration should stop violating the law so blatantly,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told POLITICO. “We will continue to monitor, hold them accountable.”
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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