Maine has signed onto a lawsuit against the Trump Administration challenging its new prohibitions on providing access to certain social services to people who are in the country illegally, including Head Start.
Enforcement of the changes in question has been paused in the plaintiff states until September 3rd pursuant to a federal judge’s ruling issued Monday.
Head Start is a federal program that provides services to three- and four-year-old children with access to a number of services, including those related to their health and social needs. Head Start service models vary from place to place and may take the form of schools, centers, or even home visits.
While those without legal status have long been ineligible for federal benefits like food stamps or financial aid, certain federally funded community-based programs have remained accessible in recent decades.
Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced that it would be reclassifying Head Start and other similar programs as federal benefits, excluding illegal immigrants from receiving them.
“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement. “Today’s action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.”
The Associated Press reported in early July that this came as part of a “multi-agency” effort to reinterpret federal law, reversing the understanding that has been in place since agencies under the Clinton Administration issued guidance based on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
According to EdWeek, federal agencies at the time interpreted this law in such a way that restrictions on providing benefits to those in the country illegally applied to some programs and not to others. It is this interpretation that agencies within the Trump Administration are now working to amend.
The Education Department, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Labor all made similar announcements this month, instituting a legal status requirement for several workforce development and adult education programs.
Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James the lawsuit alleges that the federal government failed to follow proper rulemaking procedures when advancing these changes.
“These programs work because they are open, accessible, and grounded in compassion,” James said in a statement, according to WGME. “This is a baseless attack on some of our country’s most effective and inclusive public programs, and we will not let it stand.”
The lawsuit also suggests that implementing immigration status checks would be a costly endeavor, particularly for Head Start programs that are described as “operat[ing] on razor-thin margins.”
In light of the court’s order pausing enforcement of these changes, the Trump Administration has agreed that it will not retroactively enforce the legal status requirements in the plaintiff states should the new criteria ultimately be allowed to take effect.
