New SNAP RequirementsThreaten Vulnerable Oregonians

Oregon has joined 20 other states in a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s attempts to gather the personal data of anyone who has applied for food stamps in the past five years, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced Monday. 

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in May its intention to create a National Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Information Database, the stated rationale was to combat fraud and waste within the anti-hunger program, which is federally funded and administered at the state level. Last year, more than 12% of Americans depended on SNAP to mitigate food insecurity, including 757,700 Oregonians. 

Nearly 25% of Black Oregonians accessed the program in 2023. 

“Black Oregonians are among the most vulnerable and those that benefit from SNAP the most,” Alex Aghdaei, SNAP policy analyst and outreach coordinator at the nonprofit Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, told The Skanner. 

The 20 state attorneys general who have pushed back against the USDA’s demands argue that the Trump administration is compiling this information to further immigration raids, and to expand on data the Department of Homeland Security has already obtained about Medicaid recipients and from the Internal Revenue Service. 

“This request is really unprecedented,” Aghdaei said.

“The level of personal information that the government is asking for and consolidating in one place is truly so far beyond the norm that it should be deeply concerning to anyone, regardless of whether or not you are an immigrant or have been a citizen your whole life.” 

Today is the deadline the USDA provided for states to turn over SNAP data. Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services confirmed “ODHS has not provided information to the USDA following their direction to transmit sensitive personally identifiable information about recipients and applicants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”

DATA Snapshots

Undocumented immigrants have never been eligible to receive SNAP benefits. A bill introduced in the Oregon senate earlier this year would have created a SNAP-like state program for workers whose immigration status otherwise barred them from receiving food stamps, but failed to progress before the legislature. Under the budget reconciliation bill passed in July, refugees, asylum-seekers and survivors of human trafficking will be barred from receiving SNAP benefits. 

Last year, more than 12% of Americans depended on SNAP to mitigate food insecurity, including 757,700 Oregonians. “That’s around 2,793 Oregonians that will be cut off,” Aghdaei said. “There’s no question that immigration status has always been a sensitive topic with any benefits. SNAP is not a public charge benefit, but that’s something that a lot of people assume or are concerned about when applying for it. We’ve had to work for decades really to help alleviate those concerns and increase access to SNAP among immigrant communities and mixed-status households.”

The creation of a national SNAP database is legitimizing those old fears for residents at all stages of the immigration process. While SNAP applications do not record immigration status, Aghdaei said there may be hints. Applicants are required to list information for all members of their household, and those lacking a social security number could draw scrutiny, for example. Additionally, undocumented parents are able to apply for SNAP benefits on behalf of their citizen children. 

Until the USDA’s demand for state data earlier this year, SNAP applicants have understood how the information they submit may be used. Toward the end of the application, Oregon Department of Human Services outlines circumstances in which state agencies might share applicant data. While it is acknowledged that applicant information could be shared with law enforcement agencies in order to apprehend a fugitive, there is no mention of divulging such information to any customs or immigration officials, or collecting it at the federal level.

Now, 20 state attorneys general and the state of Kentucky are arguing that what the USDA is proposing is a betrayal of terms and public trust. 

“Most laws that regulate data ethics and privacy have some requirement about purpose limitation,” Emmi Bane, a Portland-based data ethics expert, told The Skanner. “When you give consent to collect your information, you are consenting (that it be used) for a specific purpose. So if I sign up for SNAP benefits, for example, I consent that you will use that information to provide me with the benefits that I’m signing up for, but I’m not necessarily consenting to you connecting this information to larger profiles that you then reconnect to me, as new personal information.”

Bane emphasized, “You cannot consent in advance to a technology that doesn’t exist yet.

"You can’t use a past consent to apply to a future use if it is a different purpose, a new technology, a new type of processing.” 

Of additional concern is the USDA’s demand for SNAP applicant data from the past five years, which would capture the private information of past applicants as well.

Undermining States?

Many experts argue that centralizing the data to review at the federal level seems an unnecessary step for a program whose national fraud rate is below 1%. 

“SNAP is one of the least fraudulent benefits in the entire country,” Aghdaei said. “It’s kind of unheard of for a public benefit to be so well administered.”

“The interesting thing about the government taking this information is that first of all the stated purpose is that they’re attempting to minimize fraudulent activity or duplicative applications, and inappropriate release of funds,” Bane said. “But that’s already within the state’s agreement, that’s already part of the SNAP program and the state has been given exclusive responsibility for overseeing this. There doesn’t seem to be an overwhelmingly compelling purpose for the government to have this information, unless it is for an additional purpose that was not originally disclosed when people gave their information.”

These considerations, coupled with the compulsory nature of providing such data in order to secure an essential resource, complicate the idea of informed consent, Bane added.

“There is such a huge power differential in the government saying ‘You must give us this information,’ and then on top of it there’s a power differential that exists simply because these people are in dire straits,” she said. “You are vulnerable if you’re coming and you’re asking for aid, and because these people are in vulnerable positions, it is possible to coerce them into saying yes, and so we have to be doubly careful that the purposes to which we put this information are scrupulously delineated, and also that we self-monitor.”

Eroding Trust

These changes that are likely to deter many SNAP applicants come at a time of increased need, food security advocates say.  

“Our organization has grown 20% a year for the last three years in terms of the pounds of food we’ve distributed and in terms of the people that we serve,” Stephanie Barr, executive director of the nonprofit Lift Urban Portland (Lift UP), told The Skanner. “That’s been ongoing, and we actually coordinate a coalition of food security nonprofits serving downtown Portland, and their growth aligns with our growth. We’ve definitely been in a food insecurity crisis, and when the pandemic-era investment in increasing SNAP benefits went away in March of 2023, we saw an immediate 30% jump at our pantry the following month.”

Food pantries collect minimal data from those they serve, and often fill the gap for those unable to access SNAP benefits. But even amid the growing need, Barr said Lift UP and partner organizations observed a drop-off in the numbers of non-citizens who show up to food pantries. 

Lift UP redistributes food to the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, which maintains food pantries.

“Several of the pantries in our coalition reference seeing fewer immigrants starting in about February, and we saw a decline as well and we assumed that’s because people are afraid even to meet their basic needs,” Barr said, referencing recent ICE raids. “Spanish is the second-most-common foreign language spoken at our pantries downtown, after Mandarin, and just anecdotally we observed a decrease in Spanish-speakers shopping in the pantry starting February or March.”

Information For SNAP Recipients

Additional changes to SNAP include new work requirements for some benefit recipients between the ages of 18 and 64. SNAP recipients who don't live with children may be required to provide documentation they work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. There are some exemptions for those who are pregnant, have a disability, attend school or are undergoing addiction treatment, in addition to other factors. These changes will take effect starting Sept. 1 for SNAP recipients in Benton, Clackamas, Hood River, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties.

Aghdaei has advice for the one in six Oregonians who currently receive SNAP benefits.

“If you are on SNAP, continue to use your benefits as normal,” he said. “Be aware of what’s happening, be conscientious of the information that you’re sharing with your caseworker, and if you are cut off from your benefits or you feel your rights have been violated in the way your data has been shared, then call the Oregon Public Benefits Hotline” (number below), a legal aid service provided by the Oregon Law Center. In addition, he recommended that those with questions call 211, a free resource that provides referrals to social and support services in Oregon and Southwest Washington. 

The Oregon Public Benefits Hotline: 1-800-520-5292 

The Oregon Food Bank’s Food Finder tool provides information on where to obtain free food, and where to maximize SNAP benefits: https://foodfinder.oregonfoodbank.org.