New federal policy would allow sensitive information about Work First New Jersey recipients to be shared with immigration authorities and other s

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport sued the Trump administration Monday to block a new federal policy that would allow personal information about thousands of state residents receiving public assistance to be shared with immigration authorities and other government or private entities.

New Jersey joined 23 other states and the District of Columbia in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. The states allege the Administration for Children and Families lacks the legal authority to expand its oversight of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and disclose recipients’ personal information.

The disputed policy could give the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other entities access to years of records containing recipients’ Social Security numbers, addresses, income, marital status, family relationships, employment information, and immigration status, according to the 60-page complaint.

The federal agency said the information could be used to verify eligibility and determine whether states are complying with program requirements. But the states contend Congress assigned responsibility for determining eligibility to them and sharply limited the federal government’s oversight authority.

“The Trump administration has tried time and again to weaponize every aspect of government as part of their reckless immigration enforcement efforts,” Davenport said in a statement. “Now, they want to misuse a program intended to help vulnerable families and children as a tool for harassing immigrants.”

The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the policy illegal and prevent the administration from implementing it. The new data-sharing provision is scheduled to take effect Aug. 11, the same day public comments on it are due.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known in New Jersey as Work First New Jersey, provides cash assistance and other services to low-income families with children. The program also supports child care, emergency housing for families fleeing domestic violence, food assistance, employment services, and aid for grandparents caring for children.

New Jersey’s fiscal 2027 budget includes $540 million for the program, which assisted more than 24,000 state residents as of April, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced the change in a June 23 notice published in the Federal Register. The agency said it could share recipients’ information with federal, state, or private entities to help conduct audits, fraud investigations, program reviews, and immigration-status checks.

The states argue that the policy violates several federal privacy laws, including provisions protecting Social Security numbers and restricting the disclosure of records collected by the Department of Health and Human Services.

They also allege the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to explain why the expansion was necessary, consider its costs, or account for states’ reliance on longstanding confidentiality protections. The complaint says the policy violates the Constitution’s Spending Clause because states were not told when they accepted federal funding that recipients’ information could later be used for broad federal oversight or shared with other entities.

The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of using unsubstantiated fraud claims to justify increased scrutiny of safety-net programs, particularly those serving immigrants and children in immigrant families.

In June, the Administration for Children and Families issued a report examining cases in which benefits are paid on behalf of eligible children whose parents cannot receive assistance because of their immigration status. Federal law permits eligible children to receive benefits regardless of whether their parents qualify.

The complaint says states already verify applicants’ citizenship or immigration status through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database and require additional documentation when that system does not produce a definitive result.

Using older state records to run new immigration checks could generate false matches because a recipient’s status may have changed since the information was collected, the states argue.

The coalition also warned that sharing records with immigration authorities could discourage eligible families from seeking assistance, leaving states to spend more of their own money on food, housing, and other emergency services.

“Federal law sets clear limits on the sharing of sensitive personal data, but the administration would obliterate those guardrails and violate the privacy of families that are just trying to make ends meet,” Davenport said.