20 States Sue Trump Administration Over Immigration-Based Head Start Restrictions

Several legal challenges have emerged in response to recent government restrictions limiting immigrant access to public social services and subsidized programs. In Quebec, families from France and Ukraine are threatening to sue the provincial government over its directive barring foreign workers with open work permits from subsidized daycare, which the government defends as a fairness measure amid high demand. Meanwhile, in the United States, a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general filed lawsuits against the Trump administration’s new rules that restrict immigrants’ access to federally funded programs such as Head Start, adult education, and community health services, arguing these rules were implemented without proper procedure and will cause significant harm to vulnerable populations, including U.S. citizens. The lawsuits emphasize that such restrictions not only affect undocumented immigrants but also individuals with legal but temporary statuses, potentially denying services to low-income U.S. citizens lacking government IDs. Separately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services faces a lawsuit for abruptly ending Special Immigrant Juvenile protections, which shielded abused children from deportation, with plaintiffs arguing the termination lacked sufficient notice. Collectively, these legal actions highlight widespread concerns over recent policy shifts that reduce immigrant access to essential social support programs and protections.