Head Start preschool programs will continue to welcome all immigrant children regardless of legal status, federal judges ruled in two separate lawsuits this week, blocking efforts by the Trump administration to restrict enrollment.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in July that Head Start and other programs it administered would be limited to U.S. citizens and certain immigrants with legal status, upending decades where the rule has been not to check the immigration status of the participating babies and children too young for preschool.
The Illinois Head Start association filed a lawsuit, along with other Head Start and parent advocate groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, to halt the changes to the rules announced by the Trump administration. Another suit was filed by Illinois and 19 other states with Democratic attorneys general, plus the District of Columbia.
This week in both cases, Republican-appointed federal judges agreed to block the changes.
The rulings come amid this week’s escalation of federal enforcement against immigrants in Chicago, stemming from Trump campaign promises to deport anyone without legal status.
On Wednesday, in the case filed by the attorneys general, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island halted the new rules while the lawsuit makes its way to trial.
“The Government argues that it has somehow interpreted this statute incorrectly for the nearly 30 years that it has been the law. 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,” wrote McElroy, a Trump appointee, in her 60-page ruling. “The Court is skeptical of that.”
Then on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez of Washington ruled in favor of the Head Start advocates, issuing a nationwide injunction that prevents the proposed changes from taking effect.
Congress changed the rules of Head Start since its founding in 1965 several times but never included any immigration or citizenship requirements for Head Start eligibility, Martinez wrote in a 26-page ruling.
“The Directive imposes new obligations on Head Start agencies and strips away rights from immigrant families,” said Martinez, appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. “Agencies must publish proposed rules and allow the public the opportunity to comment before promulgating substantive rules.”
On behalf of the Illinois Head Start Association and other plaintiffs, Allison Siebeneck, director of the Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project at the ACLU of Illinois, wrote in a statement that the ruling “protects essential early childhood education for families across the country. It also reaffirms that no president can bypass Congress or rewrite law by executive edict.”
An HHS spokeswoman said in an email the agency “disagrees with the court’s decisions and is evaluating next steps.”