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 beginning on July 10 by four agencies including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education. It marked a shift in how the federal government interpreted a 1996 law that limited migrants' access to government benefit programs.

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, like 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. It now requires states that accept federal funding to verify applicants' status before they can access services like domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens and adult education.

"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 four agencies "offer at best incomplete answers to serious questions," and changed the policy "in a rushed way, without seeking comment from the public or interested parties."

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

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)