New York Attorney General Letitia James today led a multistate coalition of 20 other attorneys general in calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to immediately correct errors in new federal instructions determining who can receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Attorney General James and the coalition warn that USDA’s new guidance wrongly treats several groups of immigrants as ineligible for food assistance, contradicts long-standing federal law, and could unlawfully block lawful permanent residents who were granted asylum or entered the United States as refugees, parolees, or other humanitarian entrants from receiving the food benefits they are entitled to. The attorneys general are demanding that USDA fix these errors.
“The USDA’s confusing and incorrect guidance puts vulnerable people at risk of losing the food they need to survive,” said Attorney General James. “Refugees, asylees, and other immigrants who obtained legal status should not lose access to SNAP benefits because the federal government misread its own laws. Families need certainty, states need clear instruction, and USDA must correct these mistakes immediately.”