An Act to Ensure Access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Maine

Grocery help for noncitizens, with eligibility limits

The law replaces Maine’s prior rules with state-funded grocery help for households blocked from federal SNAP by immigration status. Households must otherwise qualify for SNAP, and the state Department administers the program. People receiving state food assistance on July 1, 2011 can keep it while eligibility and coverage remain uninterrupted. For others, the law requires both a listed immigration status and a listed personal condition. This test applies to people not receiving assistance on July 1, 2011 who lacked a pending application later approved. Listed statuses include qualified aliens, lawful permanent residents who fail special federal assistance conditions, asylees, and refugees. People with pending asylum or withholding-of-removal applications, Temporary Protected Status, or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status also qualify for the status test. So do people who received or qualified for federal SNAP on July 3, 2025 but lost eligibility under Public Law 119-21. Applicants subject to the test must also meet at least one personal condition. They must be elderly or disabled under federal Supplemental Security Income rules, or experience domestic violence, human trafficking, or their effects. Alternatively, they must be unable to work while obtaining proper work documents, or unemployed after obtaining those documents. Dependent children also meet this condition when their parent faces either work situation. The Department can adopt routine technical rules for these work-related conditions.