By KIMBERLY KINDY, Associated Press

Washington (AP) — A coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration’s demand that their states turn over personal data of people enrolled in a federally funded food assistance program, fearing the information will be used to aid mass deportations.

The data demand comes as the Trump administration has sought to collect private information on mostly lower-income people who may be in the country illegally. It has already ordered the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to share private information with the Department of Homeland Security to aid in deportation efforts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture told states last week that it had until Wednesday to hand over the data for those enrolled in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which serves more than 42 million people nationwide. The USDA said the data will help it combat waste, fraud and abuse.

The states’ lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the data transfer. In the meantime, state attorneys general in the SNAP lawsuit said they will not disclose what they consider to be private information of recipients — including their immigration status, birthdates and home addresses — because they believe it would be a violation of privacy laws.

“It’s a bait-and-switch of the worst kind,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a Monday afternoon news conference announcing the lawsuit. “SNAP recipients provided this information to get help feeding their families, not to be entered into a government surveillance database or be used as targets in the president’s inhumane immigration agenda.”

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In May, the department announced it was seeking the data as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to obtain data from state programs to help root out fraud and waste. “For years, this program has been on autopilot, with no USDA insight into real-time data,” USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said in a statement at the time. “The Department is focused on appropriate and lawful participation in SNAP, and today’s request is one of many steps to ensure SNAP is preserved for only those eligible.”

USDA officials declined a request for comment on the suit.

The USDA did not mention immigration enforcement in the announcement or later notices. It is not clear why USDA officials believe the data will help it weed out fraud and abuse. The agency claims the program is already “one of the most rigorous quality control systems in the federal government.”

Immigration advocates noted that the Trump administration has used the same argument to obtain other sensitive data, only to later admit it would be using the information to enhance its deportation operations. Trump administration officials, for example, initially claimed they were seeking state Medicaid data to fight fraud. Last week, a top immigration official conceded they would be utilizing that same information to locate immigrants.

Agency officials have threatened to withhold SNAP funding if states fail to comply with their demand for data.

While immigrants without legal status are ineligible to receive SNAP benefits, they can apply on behalf of their children who are U.S. citizens or those who are part of a mixed-status household.

Under the program, formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays for 100% of the food benefits, but the states help cover the administrative costs. States are also responsible for determining whether individuals are eligible for benefits and for issuing those benefits to enrollees.

Immigration and data privacy advocates expressed alarm at the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain sensitive SNAP data maintained by states.

“The administration has all but told us that their intention is to comb this data and use it for unlawful purposes that include immigration enforcement,” said Madeline Wiseman, an attorney with the National Student Legal Defense Network, which filed a lawsuit in May with privacy and hunger relief groups that are also challenging USDA’s efforts for SNAP data.

“By refusing to include the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the revamped pilot, New York State is complicit in the ongoing danger facing these residents. Basement safety is not a luxury, it’s a matter of life or death and we need to right this wrong.”

Ida aftermath in Queens.

On Sept. 1, 2021, Hurricane Ida dumped an unprecedented 3.5 inches of rain per hour on New York City—nine inches in total. Our city’s outdated sewer system was quickly overwhelmed, leading to 13 deaths. Eleven of those people drowned in basement apartments.

Just this month, over two inches of rain fell on New York City in just one hour—the second rainiest hour since Ida. Once again, streets turned into rivers and subways flooded. Water poured into unregulated, unsafe basement units. Constituents have told us that every time it rains, they brace for impact. As we approach the fourth-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, we are still failing to protect our most vulnerable. 

That’s why we introduced Resolution 991 in the City Council, urging Albany lawmakers to pass bills A.597/S.2507 that would expand the state’s basement conversion pilot program to include unfairly excluded communities. This program, which the city has failed to roll out in a timely manner, would make hundreds and even thousands more basement apartments safe.

RELATED READING: Navigating NYC’s Housing Crisis Through Basement Living

Extreme flooding is no longer a freak event. As climate change accelerates, decades of inaction have led to extreme weather becoming the norm. The new seasonal reality will be flash floods and torrential storms. Yet much of our housing stock remains woefully unprepared. As environmental and housing crises are colliding, no one feels the danger more than the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living in basement apartments. 

The problem is further exacerbated by Donald Trump and Republicans cutting over $300 million in FEMA funding for New York City and New York State flood mitigation, which affects Bushwick, East New York, East Elmhurst, Corona, and Astoria residents the most. 

The city tried to make basement apartments safe through the Basement Conversion Pilot Program many years ago, only to be stymied by city funding cuts and state regulatory barriers. Last spring, the state lifted many of those barriers but confusingly excluded the working-class neighborhoods of color with some of the highest concentrations of basement units. Yet again our communities have been left out of the conversation.

Why? Because state representatives lobbied against their own community’s inclusion. 

None of the community boards in our districts were included in this pilot even though Community Board 5, represented by Councilmember Nurse, hosted the original pilot many years ago before petering out due to the aforementioned barriers—the same barriers which were lifted through recent State action. 

By refusing to include the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the revamped pilot, New York State is complicit in the ongoing danger facing these residents. Basement safety is not a luxury, it’s a matter of life or death and we need to right this wrong.

We cannot wait for the next storm to remind us of our failures. Ida was the warning and the clock is ticking. The state must act now to make sure that every home can be a safe shelter. 

Sandy Nurse and Shekar Krishnan are members of the New York City Council representing neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens respectively. They submitted this op-ed in partnership with the Basement Apartments Safe for Everyone (BASE) Coalition.

The post Opinion: A Storm is Coming. The State Must Act Now to Make Basement Apartments Safe. appeared first on City Limits.

Minnesotans will have more privacy protections for their online data under a new law set to take effect on Thursday.

The Consumer Data Privacy Act will give people in the state the right to opt out of businesses tracking personal data like names, email addresses or location history for use in targeted marketing. Traits like ethnicity and sexuality also are covered by the law.

The law grants consumers the right to obtain personal data held by a company and a list of other companies that bought the information. Consumers also can ask businesses to delete data or request that the business edit inaccuracies.

A growing number of states have introduced consumer information protection laws as data collection has become increasingly pervasive.

Generating data

Targeted advertisements based on a phone’s location or a user’s shopping history are just one facet of personal data collection. Newer cars and even some home appliances — like dishwashers and refrigerators — now connect to the internet, potentially giving outsiders information about a person’s habits.

A typical person generates about 1.7 gigabytes of data a day — the equivalent of 2,000 photos on a phone, said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. It can come from everything from fitness apps to social media browsing.

“We cannot and should not just think that violations and invasions of our privacy are just the way it is in this modern time,” Ellison said as he briefed reporters on the law Monday at the state Capitol. “We have a right to our privacy, and we have to protect it.”

Businesses have to comply with the law if they control or process the personal information of 100,000 or more Minnesota residents or if they earn more than 25% of their revenue from the sale of personal data and handle 25,000 consumers’ data.

For the first six months the law is in effect, businesses will have 30 days to correct violations after notification by the attorney general.

‘If you’re not paying anything for the product, you are the product’

Minnesota is now one of 19 states to adopt a consumer data privacy law.

While some companies are critical of what they call a patchwork of privacy laws, bill sponsor Rep. Steve Elkins, DFL-Bloomington, said the lack of federal action on the issue demanded action from the states.

Elkins, who has worked for the past 25 years in data management, said free applications — like weather apps — often harvest data from users such as location history and sell it to third parties.

“There’s an adage in the software industry,” he said. “If you’re not paying anything for the product, you are the product.”

Supporters say it will help empower consumers to question data-driven decision-making by businesses on jobs, housing and insurance, similar to how they can request data on their credit scores.

Protections under the law

Minnesota’s law has some advantages over others, including the right to question a company’s decision to deny a service, Elkins said.

For example, a property company will not be able to deny a tenant’s rental application and refuse to disclose data that may have helped them arrive at that decision merely because it is “proprietary.”

Other protections include a requirement for businesses to get permission from a parent or guardian before selling information of consumers under the age of 16. Consumers can question the results of automated decisions made about their data. Businesses have 45 days to respond to requests for information.

Data on a consumer’s ethnicity, race, religion, health, sexuality and genetic information also is protected under the new law.

Opt-out requirement

Some online platforms already give users the option to opt out of data sharing for targeted advertisements, including the search engine DuckDuckGo and the browser Mozilla Firefox, Elkins said. When the personal data law takes effect on Thursday, there will be a universal opt-out requirement.

Companies like Apple and Microsoft are generally in favor of third-party data selling restrictions, and most resistance comes from data broker companies, Elkins said. In 2019, a state lobbyist for Microsoft approached Elkins about sponsoring a data privacy bill.

To help acquaint Minnesotans with the new consumer protections, the attorney general’s office has launched a new website: privacymn.com.

Materials include drafts of letters consumers can use to assert their rights and guidance on how to report violations of the new law. It also offers guidance on how to set up opt-out mechanisms.

Complaints can be filed with the attorney general at 651-296-3353.

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As of July 20, of the 35,800 total migrants in city shelters, 80 percent are already in Department of Homeless Services-run sites. About 6,800 are in four non-DHS shelters where the 30- and 60-day deadlines still apply, officials told City Limits.

The Department of Homeless Services’ intake center for families with children in the Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The entrance ramp to the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) office is long and steep, and on a recent warm summer morning, children ran up it while their parents walked to the front door. Some were dragging small wheeled suitcases. 

The building, run by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), is the first stop for families with kids seeking shelter in the city. As of late June, that now includes migrants and asylum seekers, who previously had to complete their shelter intake at a separate arrival center in Manhattan. 

The city has been transitioning immigrants to a single shelter system under DHS, as it dismantles the extensive network of emergency shelters run by other city agencies opened to house migrants and asylum seekers over the last three years. During peak periods, several hundred arrived daily.

But for the last several months, only a few dozen migrants have entered shelter each week, as the number of those departing the city increased. Since June 2024, following the Biden administration’s implementation of new asylum claim limits, both the number of people crossing the border and arriving in the city has dropped significantly. 

The shift also means fewer people are subject to the city’s controversial shelter deadlines, which don’t apply to those staying in DHS-operated facilities. 

As of July 20, most immigrants had already been moved to the DHS shelter system: of the 35,800 total migrants in shelter, 80 percent are in DHS-run shelters, while about 6,800 are in four non-DHS shelters. 

Those who remain in the few non-DHS shelters will continue to have their stays time-limited as a capacity management policy, City Hall said. Families with children will receive 60-day notices; when their time is up, depending on capacity, they will either be offered an extension or placement in the DHS system.

“[O]ur understanding is that … if you need more time, just basically tell your case manager or someone on site, and you’ll be extended in place,” explained Will Watts, deputy executive director for advocacy with the Coalition for the Homeless, which monitors conditions in the city’s shelters.

“You’re not going to need to go anywhere to ask for an extension. So if this works like it’s supposed to, no one really should need to be going to another site after a certain period of time,” he added.

Migrant adults and families without kids in non-DHS shelters will continue to receive 30- or 60-day notices, after which they will be offered placement extensions based on bed availability.

“It was always the goal for the city to consolidate these systems. Our settlement was always meant to be temporary,” said Kathryn Kliff, staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project.

She’s referring to the settlement reached last year that temporarily narrowed New York City’s right-to-shelter rules—which generally require the city to provide a bed to anyone in need—as officials struggled to find space for new arrivals.

“They are working toward a world where everyone goes through DHS intake, and that means that everyone is entitled to the protections you’re entitled to,” Kliff said. 

‘Not out of the woods yet’

Since the end of June, anyone looking for shelter—including migrants—should go to the DHS’s regular intake centers. For single adults, that means visits to sites in Manhattan, while families with children must go to the PATH building in the Bronx. 

During City Limits’ recent visit, New Yorkers without a home were visiting PATH, and only a couple of single adult migrants were looking for accommodation more suited to their needs. A man who asked not to be identified for fear of federal immigration enforcement said he uses a cane and is looking to move to a lower floor of the Wards Island shelter, where he has been staying for a month, so he can walk less.

“The young people, full of energy, were placed on the first floor, and I was placed on the seventh floor,” the man, 44, said in Spanish.

After entering and leaving a few minutes later, he said he and a friend had been referred to DHS intake for single adults in Manhattan. They said that they could not find anyone who spoke Spanish within the PATH intake center.

However, when asked about it, a DHS spokesperson said that 15 interpreters work in shifts at PATH every day to ensure that there are always interpreters on hand. In addition to in-person services, the agency also has interpreters available remotely through the city’s language line.

Since the spring of 2022, over 237,700 migrants have come through the city’s shelter intakes. From July 14 to July 20, fewer than 100 new migrants entered it, while more than 300 migrants left, officials said. 

“While we have made strides on the crisis, we are not out of the woods yet. There are still 36,000 migrants in need of shelter and services,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

As part of the scale-down efforts, the city recently closed several facilities, including the Asylum Application Help Center, located at the American Red Cross headquarters in Manhattan, which offered various immigration legal services, and the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, where families applied for and extended their stays in shelters. 

Other recent closures include the “Reticketing Center” in the East Village and a network of “faith beds,” which were set up in religious centers to accommodate people seeking shelter.

Migrants lined up outside the Reticketing Center in the spring of 2024. (City Limits/Adi Talwar)

The Reticketing Center closes

The city started giving 60-day shelter deadlines to single migrant adults in July 2023. That November, their shelter stay limit was reduced to 30 days. In October 2023, the city announced that family notices would be given to families with kids, and these started in January 2024. 

While people could request an extension after their time ran out, housing and homelessness advocates heavily criticized the deadline policy—and some lawmakers introduced legislation to ban it—saying the frequent moves were disruptive to families trying to stabilize their lives. 

The administration opened its East Village “Reticketing Center” in October 2023 to process all adult migrants’ shelter extension requests, as well as provide those willing to relocate elsewhere with free travel tickets to locations outside the city.

For months in late 2023 and early 2024, immigrants gathered outside the former St. Brigid’s School building, forming long lines as they sought shelter placements or extensions. Some arrived with their suitcases and backpacks, ready to request a one-way bus or airplane ticket.

The administration closed the site at the end of June. According to the mayor’s office, over 100,000 people visited the Reticketing Center to request additional time in shelters or tickets for onward travel during its many months of operation. 

“Over the past year, thanks to the successful implementation of 30- and 60-day time limit policies in conjunction with asylum seeker management strategies, including reticketing and case management, 84 percent of migrants have left our system and taken their next steps toward self-sufficiency,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

The mayor’s office said that migrants can continue to request tickets for travel through their shelter placements.

Faith-based shelter program 

City Limits first reported on the administration’s plans for a faith-based emergency shelter program in May 2023, and the mayor’s office formally announced it that June.

On paper, the plan aimed to establish a network of around 950 shelter beds spread across 50 houses of worship, which would offer overnight only accommodations to migrants so that the sites could continue their daytime programming.

However, the program, which cost the city less than the use of hotels converted into emergency shelters, took much longer than expected to launch, as some of the sites faced obstacles meeting code compliance accreditations.

The faith-based shelter program included daytime “hospitality centers” in different boroughs where migrants could spend the day and access services such as showers and meals.

Although the contract for this program was expected to last two years, the city ended it in late June, citing decreased need.

“Due to these closures and declining migrant population, we have been transitioning back to a single shelter system for all New Yorkers seeking shelter,” a City Hall spokesperson said via email.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Fewer Migrants Subject to Shelter Deadlines as City Transitions to Unified System appeared first on City Limits.