Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul
Raoul Takes Action to Stop Illegal Sharing of TANF Recipients’ Private Data
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 23 attorneys general, today filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over unlawful policy changes that would give the administration broad access to the sensitive private information of millions of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits. These changes would see the administration using and sharing this data to advance its political goals in ways well beyond what Congress intended.
Raoul and the coalition argue in their lawsuit that the attempt to share millions of people’s data and implement new monitoring of states’ TANF programs violates the law and is a blatant and pretextual effort to politically target those who are lawfully receiving critical TANF benefits.
“Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits are intended to support Illinois’ most vulnerable residents by providing essential assistance during a time of need,” Raoul said. “However, this new policy change targets individuals who rely on those benefits and allows for the illegal sharing of their personal and private information across federal government agencies without limitations. I am filing this lawsuit today with my colleagues because this policy violates the law and attacks the privacy of millions of families across the country.”
In June 2026, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued a notice claiming to dramatically expand its oversight of state TANF programs, including by allowing the ACF to share detailed records on TANF recipients with other federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Under the ACF’s new policy, TANF recipients’ Social Security numbers, addresses, immigration status and other sensitive personal data would be illegally shared across the federal government with no effective oversight or restrictions, and even potentially with private organizations.
Congress created TANF as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. The law requires the federal government to provide block grants to states, territories and tribal governments, which then have broad authority to use the funds for a variety of programs that provide assistance to low-income families with children. TANF funds support childcare subsidies, emergency housing for families fleeing domestic violence, emergency food assistance, support for grandparents caring for children and other critical services. TANF currently provides over $16 billion every year across the country for these programs.
As Raoul and the attorneys general assert in their lawsuit, TANF is one of the largest sources of direct assistance to low-income families and a crucial part of states’ efforts to fight poverty. Illinois receives approximately $583 million annually in TANF funding and provides over 65,000 Illinois residents with crucial temporary financial assistance.
The law enacting TANF specifically requires states, not the federal government, to be responsible for verifying TANF applicants’ eligibility for benefits. Yet the ACF now claims the agency has broad authority to oversee states’ TANF programs and share recipients’ private data with other federal agencies to double check their immigration status. The ACF already tried to illegally expand its authority once this year when it froze all TANF funds to five Democrat-led states. That action was blocked by the courts, and this new data-sharing policy is yet another example of the administration’s attempts to break the law to achieve political goals.
Attorney General Raoul and the coalition argue this policy would cause significant harm to the vulnerable communities that rely on TANF funds. Allowing TANF recipients’ private data to be illegally shared across the federal government would erode trust that states’ TANF programs have built with immigrant communities and deter those legally qualified to receive benefits from seeking out assistance. The ACF’s policy could also lead to unlawful oversight requirements from the federal government, which would divert resources that should be used on critical programs to help low-income families.
Raoul and the attorneys general argue the ACF’s new policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it ignores restrictions on data sharing in TANF programs and enacts arbitrary new conditions on federal funding. The lawsuit seeks a court order to declare the ACF’s policy illegal and prevent implementation.
Joining Attorney General Raoul in this lawsuit are attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the states of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
