The Trump administration is making an unprecedented reach for data held by states

[AZProgressive]

June 24, 2025 5:00 AM ET

By Jude Joffe-Block

The Trump administration's push to rapidly amass sensitive personal information about hundreds of millions of people living in the U.S. is extending to a rich new vein of information: troves of databases run by states. In some instances, the data could be leveraged to enhance the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts — a break with longstanding norms and practices that also raises legal questions.

"Every week we're seeing new examples of this administration demanding or sharing sensitive government data for unprecedented uses," said Nicole Schneidman, who heads the technology and data governance team at Protect Democracy, a non-profit legal center that describes its mission as "defeating the authoritarian threat."

Schneidman said Americans should understand "the data that they have entrusted to state governments right now is truly a target."

For instance, the Department of Agriculture told states last month they will need to turn over the names, Social Security numbers, addresses and dates of birth of the tens of millions of people who applied for federal food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the last five years — or potentially risk losing federal funds.

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/24/nx-s1-5423604/trump-doge-data-states