By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
In a move that many feel is yet another premise to target immigrants—and possibly to reach arrest quotas—the federal government is trying to disseminate and use the private data, including immigration status, of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a coalition of 22 other states and two state governors challenging this move in a federal lawsuit.
But the still-undecided federal lawsuit leaves many immigrants wondering what will happen with their private data—and, as ever, their safety.
“The federal government seeking to illegally use sensitive private information is not new, as we know the DOL (Washington Department of Licensing) has been sharing data with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) all year,” said Noah Ajeto, referring to the department’s ongoing practice of sharing data with immigration officials, despite a state mandate against this practice. Gov. Bob Ferguson has yet to enforce this mandate with the DOL, despite repeated public calls for him to do so.
Ajeto is a representative spokesperson with Tanggol Migrante Movement (TMM), a grassroots advocacy group working to help Filipino migrants, many of whom are facing detention and deportation.
Because many of the 36,000 households that use TANF are immigrants, Ajeto said that the federal government’s latest move to collect and use TANF recipients’ private data disproportionately targets them.
This, he said, appears to be another way for immigration agents to meet the federal government’s recently stated goal to arrest 2,000 people per day.
“Since the … mandate, our community members are getting detained returning from vacation, at their citizenship interviews, and even being forced to serve double time after being released from prison. In the worst cases, elders with stage 4 prostate cancer are being detained,” he said. “From this, it is clear that there is no legal or moral justification for these arrests, and this latest instance with TANF data sharing is simply another method to fulfill ongoing detention quotas.”
Over the past 18 months, he said, migrants and their families “have consistently been scapegoated for the economic issues of the United States and have faced the brunt” of policy-supported attacks that leaves them with the false choice of surrendering their data to an unknown fate or going without much-needed assistance.
“Families seeking assistance should not have to choose between meeting their basic needs and protecting their privacy,” Ajeto said. “It is not dissimilar to how automatic license plate readers are being used to target countless undocumented migrants through using data shared by the DOL, such as in the case of Honduran youth Yoselyn and Isaac, who were deported in June 2026.”
Despite the fact that the law governing TANF requires states, not the federal government, to manage their TANF programs, the federal government has claimed that it has broad authority to use individuals’ private information to check individuals’ eligibility for the program.
In a notice the government issued in June, the federal government also stated that it would share individuals’ private data with other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE.
In the federal lawsuit, Brown and the coalition argue that the government’s new policy will cause significant harm to the many vulnerable communities that rely on TANF, and could lead to unlawful oversight requirements from the federal government.
The families TMM serves have more to think about than just their immediate family members living in the U.S. Many of these families regularly send money back to the Philippines to support loved ones, and adding this hurdle not only means extra uncertainty in an already hostile-to-immigrants climate, but also has a chilling effect on these already-strapped families applying for assistance, Ajeto highlighted.
“Providing for our families is already extremely difficult in this economy,” Ajeto said. “Our communities are already reluctant to apply for these benefits, and many of them are unaware that they exist. Most of our working-class migrant communities already work in low-paying jobs with few benefits and are forced to send money back to the Philippines to support their loved ones.”
The state could also do a better job of protecting its immigrants, Ajeto continued. This includes not just filing lawsuits, but actively investigating agencies’ misuse and sharing of data with federal agencies and immigration enforcement.
“Washington state should do everything in its power to block this move by the [federal government] and protect their migrant communities,” Ajeto said. “The state should [also] develop its own program similar to TANF designed specifically for migrant communities that would be affected by this. Furthermore, the program should be developed alongside community organizations and migrant communities. Such programs should also be co-led by these organizations and communities alongside [Washington].”