Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today, as part of a coalition of state attorneys general, sued the Trump administration to stop its unlawful attempt to restrict access to critical health, education and social service programs. 

Earlier this month, the administration issued notices prohibiting state safety net programs from serving all residents, regardless of immigration status. The change threatens access to critical services like Head Start, Title X family planning, adult education, mental health care and community health centers. Many of the rules took effect immediately or with minimal notice and affect undocumented immigrants, lawful visa holders and U.S. citizens who lack access to formal documentation. Many crucial state programs now face loss of federal funding while immediately instituting difficult and costly immigration verification measures.

“Some of our most crucial social service programs are now at risk because of the Trump administration’s latest attempt to withhold federal funds and enforce unlawful rules that require immediate compliance,” Raoul said. “This litigation calls on the court to halt these rules and act quickly so everyone, regardless of immigration status, can have access to these programs. I will continue to oppose arbitrary and illegal actions by the Trump administration and will use all the tools at our disposal to fight unlawful orders.”  

Starting on July 10, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education (ED), Labor (DOL), and Justice (DOJ) issued a coordinated set of rules and guidance documents that reinterpret the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The agencies’ new interpretation restricts states from using federal funds to provide services to individuals who cannot verify immigration status, which is a major shift from long-standing federal practice under both republican and democratic administrations. 

In Illinois, these illegal federal rule changes target critical programs such as preventative health care and maternity care from community health centers, violent crime victim counseling and legal services, Head Start early education and adult literacy education. Illinois also stands to lose $182.5 million dollars annually for critical mental health and substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery programs, which supported nearly 33,000 Illinoisians last year. 

Raoul and the coalition argue in their lawsuit that the federal government acted unlawfully by issuing these changes without following required procedures under the Administrative Procedure Act and by misapplying PRWORA to entire programs rather than to individual benefits. The changes also violate the Constitution’s spending clause by imposing new funding conditions on states without fair notice or consent. 

Raoul and the attorneys general are asking the court to allow the programs to continue as they have, serving the populations that need them, without having to put in place new citizenship or immigration status verification procedures that will broadly harm those in need, as well as the state as a whole. The suit asks the court to declare the new rules unlawful, halt their implementation through preliminary and permanent injunctions, vacate the rules and restore the long-standing agency practice, and prevent the federal government from using PRWORA as a pretext to dismantle core safety net programs in the future.  

Joining Raoul in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.