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The Trump administration’s effort to prevent undocumented immigrant children from enrolling in Head Start preschool programs is on hold nationwide after federal judges issued injunctions in two separate lawsuits.
The Department of Health and Human Services in July declared that Head Start, along with a wide swath of health care services and workforce training programs, should be considered public benefit programs, a category of programs only available to U.S. citizens and immigrants with particular statuses, such as legal permanent residents and refugees.
Undocumented immigrants are already excluded from most welfare programs, but the rule changes abruptly expanded the list of programs that would need to verify participants’ immigration status.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued to block the rule change on behalf of four state Head Start associations as well as some parent groups. Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed their own lawsuit.
In both cases, federal judges ruled this week that the Trump administration had not followed appropriate procedures for changing rules; that in some cases the rule changes appeared to go against Congressional intent; and that providers, families, and state governments would suffer significant harm if the rules were allowed to go into effect.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island blocked the rule from going into effect in D.C. and the 20 states that sued. McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote in her opinion that the administration appeared to be arguing that the federal government had been mistaken about its own rules going back to 1996, when Congress passed the law that restricts access to public benefits.
“The Government argues that it has somehow interpreted this statute incorrectly for the nearly thirty years that it has been the law,” she wrote.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez of Washington issued a nationwide injunction in favor of Head Start providers. He noted that Congress repeatedly has updated Head Start eligibility rules and never added immigration status to the list of factors to consider.
Head Start’s enabling legislation also requires Health and Human Services to consult with experts and providers before changing rules and not to adopt rules that might reduce services. The department failed to follow this and other procedures, said Martinez, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
The new rule was set to go into effect immediately in July, but the department put it on pause in some states as part of an agreement related to the lawsuit. Health and Human Services has not issued guidance on how providers were supposed to check eligibility.
Nonetheless, Head Start providers told the court they had already experienced a chilling effect, with some families withdrawing out of fear and some providers asking for proof of citizenship in the form of birth certificates.
“Today the court was clear: HHS does not have the authority to impose an immigration-based restriction on Head Start families,” Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, senior staff attorney in the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, said in a press release. “No child and no family should have to fear accessing critical early learning services, and we will continue to defend the families that Head Start aims to serve.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently restricted the use of nationwide injunctions, but Martinez said one was necessary in this case because some providers have preschools in multiple states, including programs designed to serve migrant farmworker families.
A spokesperson for Health and Human Services could not immediately be reached for comment. The agency told the Associated Press it disagrees with the decision and is considering next steps.
Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica atemeltzer@chalkbeat.org.
