A federal judge has blocked President Trump’s attempt to impose new immigration-status checks for a host of government benefit programs, saying the administration wrongly rushed its reinterpretation of law into effect.
Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee to the court in Rhode Island, said past administrations of both parties had all shared a more limited view about the government programs that fell under a 1996 welfare reform law and its ban on services to temporary immigrants, such as student visa holders or guest workers.
The new administration this summer, however, challenged that consensus and said its reading requires a much broader effort to block.
“In its view, everyone (from every past administration) has misunderstood it from the start — at least until last month, when the right way to read it became clear to the government. The court is skeptical of that,” Judge McElroy wrote.
She issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the new rules in more than 20 Democrat-led states and the District of Columbia, which all sued to halt the reinterpretations.
At issue are programs such as Head Start, an education program for young children, and the Labor Department’s broad array of workforce services.
Under decades-old interpretations, those benefits were deemed to be generally available services that didn’t require the immigration status checks.
The Trump administration said its reading of the 1996 law indicated those programs should have been covered.
Judge McElroy ruled that the reinterpretations constituted official agency action, were legislative in nature and should have gone through a notice and comment period. The administration also failed to provide adequate justification for its new interpretation, she ruled.
Under the law, illegal immigrants are only eligible for basic lifesaving care and public schooling.
Legal immigrants are allowed access to more services, though which ones can depend on the exact nature of their status.
