Federal judge blocks Trump administration policy barring some immigrants from Head Start preschools

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy on September 21, 2026 permanently blocked the Trump administration's reinterpretation of a 1996 welfare law that would have barred certain immigrants, including those in the country illegally, from accessing Head Start preschools and other federal benefits. The ruling found that six federal agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by issuing new notices in July 2025 without required public comment periods, following President Trump's February 2025 executive order directing alignment with the law's self-sufficiency policy. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had argued the law's definition was insufficient and allowed illegal aliens to obtain welfare intended for Americans, while twenty states and D.C. successfully sued to block the changes. The decision came over a year after McElroy granted a preliminary injunction in September 2025, though agencies remain free to pursue new rules through proper rulemaking procedures.

Federal judge blocks PRWORA reinterpretation

• ▪Judge Mary McElroy's final decision on September 21, 2026 came more than a year after she granted a preliminary injunction in September 2025.
• ▪Judge Mary McElroy's ruling does not prohibit federal agencies from undertaking their July 2025 reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act again in the future in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act's required notice-and-comment period
• ▪Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration's reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act on September 21, 2026.

Administrative Procedure Act violation

• ▪Judge Mary McElroy ruled that the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and their respective secretaries failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act when they skipped a notice-and-comment period.
• ▪Federal agencies issued new notices in July 2025 that purport to reinterpret the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act without undertaking any period of notice and comment.
• ▪Judge Mary McElroy's ruling does not block the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, or the Department of Housing and Urban Development from promulgating new rules related to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act after a period of notice-and-comment rulemaking as required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• ▪Judge Mary McElroy found that the federal agencies' actions in issuing new PRWORA notices in July 2025 were procedurally invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act

PRWORA statute history

• ▪The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the attorney general determined that many programs within the Department of Housing and Urban Development do not fall under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• ▪The Department of Labor issued guidance as recently as 2024 that a number of programs are not covered by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• ▪The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act established a self-sufficiency policy that said foreign nationals should be able to financially support themselves without relying on government assistance and that federal benefits should not be a magnet for immigration to the United States.
• ▪The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act prohibited illegal immigrants from receiving federal public benefits including any grant, contract, loan, professional license, retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit provided by an agency of the United States.
• ▪The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was enacted by Congress in 1996.
• ▪The Department of Justice construed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act after its enactment as not applying to widely available services, specifying programs such as victim services, short-term homeless centers, and soup kitchens as being exempt.
• ▪The U.S. attorney general, along with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, issued notices interpreting the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act as not applying to certain categories of education programs

Trump immigrant benefits order

• ▪Four federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, issued new notices of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in July 2025 that narrowed their interpretations of exemptions and identified newly covered federal public benefits
• ▪President Donald Trump signed an executive order on February 19, 2025 titled Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders, directing federal agencies to align their programs with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• ▪HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in July 2025 that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act's definition of benefits was insufficient and allowed illegal aliens to obtain welfare that lawmakers intended for Americans and qualified immigrants.

Multi-state lawsuit

• ▪Twenty states and the District of Columbia sued over the Trump administration's reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• ▪Judge Mary McElroy stated in her September 2025 decision that the government argues it has somehow interpreted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act incorrectly for the nearly 30 years that it has been the law.
• ▪Twenty states and Washington requested a preliminary injunction against the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act's reinterpretation, which Judge Mary McElroy granted in September 2025.

Debatable claims

• ▪Trump agencies violated administrative law by skipping public comment period
• ▪Trump administration should bar illegal immigrants from Head Start preschools