US judge blocks Trump from cutting migrants off from Head Start, other programs

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from barring migrants living in the U.S. illegally from accessing numerous federally funded services, including Head Start preschools, health clinics, and food banks.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence, Rhode Island, at the behest of 21 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, issued a preliminary injunction preventing rules from taking effect that imposed new immigration-related restrictions on a variety of programs.

Those new policies were adopted as part of Trump's aggressive immigration agenda beginning on July 10 by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, and Justice and marked a shift in how the government interpreted a 1996 law that limited migrants' access to government benefit programs. Head Start is a government program run by HHS that provides early childhood education, health, and nutrition to low-income children and families.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act has long been interpreted to require states to verify a person's lawful immigration status before allowing access to certain programs, such as Medicaid, but not others that are generally open to all in a community.

The Trump administration reinterpreted that law to revoke exemptions that had been in place for nearly three decades to now require states that accept federal funding to verify applicants' status before they can access services such as domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, and adult education.

The new policy also applies to some people who are in the country legally, such as those with student visas.

"The Government's new policy, across the board, seems to be this: 'Show me your papers,'" McElroy wrote.

She said that while policymakers could reasonably debate the merits of restricting access to programs to lawful citizens, the agencies had acted in an arbitrary, rushed way to change federal policy without seeking comment from the public first.

McElroy said she was skeptical of arguments by the Justice Department that all past presidential administrations had misinterpreted the law. She said the states were likely correct it did not cover services that do not have eligibility requirements or K–12 education programs.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who helped lead the litigation, said in a statement the ruling prevented an attempt by Trump's administration "to rip apart the very programs that millions of families rely on to survive."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang, Alexia Garamfalvi, Rod Nickel)