Twenty-four states and DC sue Trump administration to block DHS access to welfare recipient data News
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Twenty-four states and DC sue Trump administration to block DHS access to welfare recipient data

Officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the DC Superior Court concerning the use of data about people receiving anti-poverty aid from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, arguing that this constitutes an illegal use of data intended to increase the already accelerating rate of deportations.

The policy at issue came into effect in June. The purpose of the policy is:

to ensure compliance with all TANF program requirements including but not limited to the work participation rate and time-limits, the requirement to provide complete and accurate data, and the requirement to verify TANF recipients’ citizenship or immigration status in records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The data collected under this policy is limited to residential addresses and Social Security numbers, and the stated, exclusive purpose of this collection is to detect and prevent fraud in public benefit programs. In sharp contrast, the pending lawsuit before the courts contends that this sensitive information, particularly Social Security numbers, is in fact being unlawfully transmitted to the Department of Homeland Security, an action that exists in direct contravention of federal privacy protections and well beyond the scope of what was originally authorized.

Previously, the Trump administration has been accused of illegally sharing data through other means. In February, a federal judge ruled that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) illegally shared data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That ruling was based on the Romo Declaration, which found “that the IRS provided confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE.” It also found that the requests for that information were “legally deficient.”

In other cases however,judges have allowed DHS to obtain data about undocumented immigrants provided that data about US citizens was not shared. In that instance, the judge found that while Congress had clearly authorized DHS to obtain basic biographical and location data about noncitizens not lawfully present in the US, the agencies went too far by leaving the scope of additional data-sharing vague and unexplained.

Laws relevant to the current action already prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving TANF aid. The Trump administration has argued that the data plans are needed for that reason. However, the complaint alleges that the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it was done without proper oversight. Also, they allege that it violates the Spending Clause of the Constitution.

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