A federal judge issued a nationwide bloc to a Trump administration order that prevented American children from registering illegally. It’s off to startfederally funded kindergarten programs.
Several state Head Start Associations have filed lawsuits Change policy According to the US Department of Health and Human Services. The ruling by a federal judge in Washington on Thursday comes after a successful coalition of 21 Democrat lawyers Temporarily suspend implementing policies within your state.
The new ruling has now put the policy on hold nationwide.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the agency opposed the court’s decision and was evaluating its next step.
In July, the HHS proposed a reinterpretation of the rules that would illegally allow domestic immigrants to receive certain social services, including Head Start and other community health programs. These programs were previously made accessible by federal laws of President Bill Clinton’s administration.
The change was part of the broader Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate people without legal status from accessing social services by making changes to federal eligibility rules.
Those immigrants will be reclassified as federal public benefits and are prohibited from accessing affected programs. This is a change that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said could remove illegal immigration. People across the country are rarely eligible for public federal benefits, including food stamps and student loans.
When issuing the interim injunction Thursday, Judge Ricardo Martinez said there was no reason for the change in interpretation of eligibility for decades. He said it threatened access to services the family relied on.
“It also brings parents to the loss of childcare, the risk of missing work, unemployment, forced dropouts, and the inability to pay for living and support their families,” Martinez wrote.
Ming-Qi Chu, one of the American Civil Liberties Council’s attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said policy changes that have been threatened that have led to the release of more than 100,000 children from the Head Start program, which has played a major historical role in supporting immigrant families.
“This happened very suddenly and there was no transition plan,” Chu said.
The HeadStart Provider did not need to screen applicants for immigration status, but the plaintiffs were distrustful of the program, claiming that it would ultimately lead to a decrease in registration. The plaintiff said ambiguity that checks the status of immigrants (positions of caregivers, children, or other household members) could also cause confusion in the family.
Head Start began 60 years ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war of poverty. Nationally, the center serves more than half a million low-income children.
The early childhood education program has overcome the waves of instability and disruption in its services. Federal grants freeze and Subsequent temporary closure Of several Head Start programs, only a few weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term began earlier this year.
