ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the Trump administration on Monday to prevent a federal initiative to share private personal data from low-income families. Alongside 23 other state attorneys general, two governors, and the attorney general of Washington D.C., New York filed suit in federal court to block the federal government from disclosing the addresses, immigration records, and Social Security numbers of welfare recipients to or among state agencies, federal agencies, and even private entities or contractors.
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The lawsuit, available to read at the bottom of this story, claimed that the data-sharing plan violates federal laws—like the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Social Security Act—that limit how agencies handle SSNs and income records. The plaintiffs want the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the rule illegal and stop it from being implemented.
The fight concerns Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a 1996 federal program offering grants to poor families with children. New York gets $2.7 billion from the program each year to give money to 190,000 people statewide—127,000 of whom are kids, according to James’ office—and fund emergency shelters that serve 39,000 residents of New York City.
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In New York, TANF money funds cash assistance, childcare subsidies, emergency housing for domestic violence victims, and food aid. James and the other plaintiffs argued in the lawsuit that the federal government doesn’t have the legal authority to monitor state programs or share confidential files. They also asked the court to strike down the policy as unconstitutional under the Spending Clause, arguing the executive branch is breaking the law by forcing conditions on money that was already approved by Congress.
James criticized the federal policy change in a press release announcing the lawsuit on Monday. “TANF funds provide critical assistance to help families put food on the table, find safe housing, and make ends meet, but this administration is weaponizing TANF to illegally use millions of people’s most private personal information,” she said. “Programs like TANF are a lifeline for New York families and I won’t let this administration turn them into a tool for targeting the most vulnerable.”
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According to the lawsuit, the U.S. Administration for Children and Families published a rule change in June—set to take effect on August 11—to let federal agencies share state welfare records with, for example, the Department of Homeland Security.
But ACF needs to share those records to “ensure compliance with all TANF program requirements,” according to the notice published in the Federal Register on June 23, “and the requirement to verify TANF recipients’ citizenship and immigration status.”
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President Donald Trump also signed an executive order in March to create a task force to find fraud and stop non-citizens from getting federal cash benefits. It argued that states “have embraced loopholes that avoid individual eligibility validation”—presenting the data-sharing rule as an effort to make sure cash benefits don’t go to anyone who’s not eligible.
The states argued in the lawsuit that federal law already makes states verify eligibility and protect recipient privacy. But under the new rule, an updated TANF Data System of Records would hoard details like zip codes, employment histories, marital status, and parentage. The expanded system would also track immigration categories, logging whether an individual has refugee or temporary protected status, or whether they’re undocumented.
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The plaintiffs also insisted that the federal rule will discourage qualified families from seeking help out of fear that DHS will use TANF data to justify surveilling or deporting them. That damages local communities where many of the kids receiving aid are American citizens despite having undocumented parents.
As argued in the lawsuit, families who are worried about data sharing will be less likely to sign up for emergency food or shelter aid for which they’d qualify. Thus, local taxpayers and state agencies will have to cover any costs like New York State-funded Safety Net Assistance and emergency shelter operations.
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The lawsuit warned that federal immigration records are often outdated or incomplete, so local caseworkers would have to waste time investigating eligible families who were already approved. In New York, this update would mean paying for new paper application forms, translating them into multiple languages, and mass mailings to thousands of previous applicants.
The plaintiffs also accused the feds of whiffing the required public notice process, having published the rule without a valid link to where people could submit feedback. After fixing that error, the administration nonetheless set the policy to take effect on August 11—the same day the wonky, foreshortened public comment period is supposed to close—implying that officials won’t actually consider any public input.
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Plus, New York’s current TANF operating plan has strict legal limits on the release of welfare records, specifically barring the disclosure of recipient names or addresses to outside groups and private entities. Officials can release that personal info to law enforcement, but only under narrow circumstances like locating fleeing felons or parole violators. New York also mandates confidentiality for vulnerable applicants, protecting the identities and addresses of domestic violence victims and individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported last year that participation in New York City’s Family Assistance program hit a 10-year high in early 2025, with about 158,000 enrolled.
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The lawsuit marked yet another installment in the protracted battle between New York and the Trump White House over funding for safety-net programs. James previously won a federal court order that blocked a $10 billion federal funding freeze when the feds froze aid. In that case, a federal judge ruled in March that no evidence of fraud in those states was submitted to the court.
New York checks applicant eligibility against federal databases using tools like its Front End Detection System to catch fraud before paying out benefits, according to the lawsuit. Indeed, the state requires drug and alcohol screenings, cooperation with child support orders, and a five-year lifetime limit on Family Assistance benefits to be eligible.
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Take a look at the lawsuit below: