Judge strikes down a Trump policy barring some immigrants from Head Start preschools

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge in Rhode Island has struck down a Trump administration directive that would have barred some immigrants from accessing certain federal programs, including Head Start preschools, community health clinics and adult education programs.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, last year had temporarily barred his administration from moving forward with the rule, so it was never implemented. On Monday, she made the injunction permanent.

The rule from the Republican administration would have reclassified broad swaths of federally funded social services programs under a Clinton-era law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, making them inaccessible to immigrants who are considered “nonqualified aliens.” That category includes adults and children who are in the United States illegally. But it also includes those on certain work visas and recipients of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which provided temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to some immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.

Those groups are already barred from receiving full Medicaid benefits and federally funded food and cash assistance.

The Trump administration issued its directive in July 2025. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia sued.

In her ruling, McElroy declared the directive “unlawful” and said the Trump administration did not follow the proper avenues to rewrite the rules. She called the administration’s actions “procedurally invalid.”

Requests for comment from the departments of Labor, Education, Justice and Health and Human Services, which were named as defendants, were not immediately returned. The Administration for Children and Families, a division of HHS that oversees Head Start, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was among those who sued, hailed the judge’s ruling.

“From cancer screenings to food banks to early childhood education, the federal government’s attempts to decimate the social safety net would have been catastrophic for working families,” James said.

Proponents of Head Start had voiced concern that the new policy would have harmed immigrant communities by taking away health services and educational opportunities. The administrative burdens of implementing the new rule would have caused many underresourced Head Start programs to close, according to the lawsuit filed by the states.

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