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California’s soup kitchens, homeless shelters and preschools can continue to serve those without legal status, at least temporarily, according to a decision today by a U.S. district court judge in Rhode Island.
In July, four federal departments — Education, Justice, Health and Human Services and Labor — directed California to deny many immigrants access to federally funded public services, including health care, education and job training. The new policies apply to certain classes of immigrants, including those without legal status as well as those who have it, such as asylum seekers or those with student visas.
California quickly joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit, arguing that the policy changes were illegal. The ruling today, which is a preliminary injunction, means that the federal government can’t enforce the new policies in these states until the lawsuit is decided, which could take months or years to resolve.
The four federal departments said in July that the new policies were an effort to fulfill one of Trump’s executive orders, which claims that public benefits fuel “illegal immigration.” The executive order asks federal departments to ensure that “no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.”
A lawyer for the Justice Department, Sean Skedzielewski, said the new policies also reflect the proper interpretation of federal law, despite the fact that the Justice Department has used a different interpretation for nearly 30 years.
In her written decision issuing the preliminary injunction, U.S. district judge Mary McElroy said she’s skeptical of Skedzielewski’s legal argument. “The (federal) Government argues that it has somehow interpreted this statute incorrectly for the nearly thirty 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 (federal) Government.”
McElroy wrote the new policies, which are now paused, would mean that “fewer people will get critical antipoverty resources due to immigrant communities avoiding services but also because, generally, people living in poverty at times lack government identification.”
Who qualifies for public benefits?
In 1996, Congress passed a law restricting most federally funded public benefits to U.S. citizens or those with certain legal statuses, such as a green card. Later, when clarifying the law, the federal government carved out certain exceptions.
Any person, regardless of their legal status, can access a crisis call center and any neglected or abused child can receive public assistance because these services are “necessary for the protection of life and safety,” according to federal guidance from 1996, which clarified the meaning of that year’s law. Homeless and domestic violence shelters, public hospitals and programs that support mental health or substance use recovery are also available to all.
As a result of a 1982 Supreme Court decision, the federal government allows all students under 18 years old, regardless of legal status, to attend public school. Immigrants without legal status are also able to access Head Start and to enroll in adult education classes, which include English as a second language and high school equivalency programs.
In Santa Clara County, which encompasses San Jose, roughly 40% of residents are foreign-born and more than half of all children in the county have a foreign-born parent. The county receives about $3.7 billion in federal funding each year, most of which supports its public hospital system, according to a court declaration by Greta Hanson, the chief operating officer of the county.
Verifying patients’ legal status isn’t feasible, she said, but even if it were, it would “have extremely detrimental impacts and deter individuals from seeking much needed care.” If an individual has a contagious disease but avoids seeking care, for example, they could jeopardize the health of their entire community.
Although the new policies went into effect in July, the health system has yet to turn away any patients. The states in the lawsuit and the four federal departments came to an agreement that they would delay enforcing the new policies until Sept. 11. Because of today’s preliminary injunction, it will now take months or years before the policies are enacted, and if the judge ultimately rules in favor of California, the policies may never take effect at all.
It’s just one of many lawsuits California has filed against the Trump administration regarding the treatment of immigrants. In an attempt to implement a different presidential executive order, which asked federal departments to stop “waste, fraud and abuse,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asked California to share private data about people who receive food stamps.
In July, Democratic attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued the USDA, saying it’s an attempt to target mixed-status families, where U.S. citizens may have a non-citizen relative. California has also sued the Trump Administration over its deployment of the National Guard after federal immigration raids led to protests in Los Angeles this summer.
All told, California has sued or joined other states in suing the federal government roughly 40 times since the president’s inauguration. During the first Trump administration, California sued the president 123 times and won about two-thirds of those cases.
Many of the lawsuits filed this year have already led to preliminary injunctions, temporarily halting the Trump administration’s new policies, but advocates for immigrants say the president’s actions have had an impact nonetheless.
Many Californians, including those with legal status, are shying away from public services out of fear. Some are afraid to leave their house at all.
At an adult school in Huntington Beach, principal Steve Curiel said few immigrants are showing up for English-language classes this summer. He said he’s heard that other schools across the state are seeing the same trend.
Education reporter Carolyn Jones contributed to this story