States Have More Data About You Than the Feds Do. Trump Wants to See It.

The New York Times – no paywall – “Critics fear that personal data might be used to monitor immigrants and political foes, and to spread false tales of fraud. As the Trump administration has sought to amass personally sensitive data on millions of individuals in America, it has run into one roadblock. The states, and not the federal government, hold many of the details Washington officials would now like to see. The states administer many safety-net programs funded with federal dollars. They run elections and register voters. They track employers and individual workers. That means they hold a clearer, more recent portrait of where to find people, what needs they have and who lives with them. The Trump administration is now expanding its data push to this trove, reaching into domains long controlled by the states — and further into their residents’ lives. This week, 20 states with Democratic attorneys general, along with the District of Columbia and Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its demand for data on anyone who has applied for or received food stamps in the last five years. Democratic states are also suing the Department of Health and Human Services for taking data the states have shared to administer Medicaid and giving it to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration enforcement. The Department of Justice has also sought nonpublic voter files from states. The federal government says it needs this information to ensure election integrity, to identify waste and fraud and to keep ineligible immigrants off benefit rolls. But critics fear that the personal data could be used to monitor immigrants and ideological opponents, or be misconstrued to portray widespread fraud. As the Trump administration has sought to amass personally sensitive data on millions of individuals in America, it has run into one roadblock…”