A federal judge in Washington state has issued a nationwide injunction blocking a Trump administration policy that would have barred children living in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Head Start, the federally funded preschool program.
The decision follows lawsuits filed by Head Start associations from several states against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The ruling expands on an earlier temporary halt won by 21 Democratic attorneys general, who succeeded in pausing the policy’s implementation within their own states.
With this new order, the restriction is suspended across the country.
Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for HHS, said, “the agency disagrees with the court’s decisions and is evaluating next steps.”
In July, HHS had proposed a reinterpretation of existing rules to prevent immigrants without legal status from receiving certain social services such as Head Start and other community health programs. Access to these programs had previously been allowed under a federal law dating back to President Bill Clinton’s administration. The policy shift was part of broader efforts by the Trump administration to restrict access to social services for people without legal status by altering eligibility requirements at the federal level.
Under this change, affected immigrants would be reclassified as recipients of federal public benefits — a category from which those in the country unlawfully are generally excluded. Federal public benefits include programs like food stamps and student loans.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that this change could serve as a deterrent for illegal immigration.
Judge Ricardo Martinez, issuing Thursday’s preliminary injunction, found no justification for changing eligibility interpretations that have existed for decades. He wrote that it threatened access to essential services for families: “It also results in parents losing childcare, risking missed work, unemployment, forced dropouts, and inability to pay life expenses and support families.”
Ming-Qi Chu of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing plaintiffs in the case, said more than 100,000 children risked disenrollment from Head Start programs due to these changes. Chu added: “This happened very abruptly with no transition plan in place.”
Previously, Head Start providers did not have to screen applicants’ immigration status; plaintiffs argued introducing such checks would erode trust and reduce enrollment among immigrant families. There was also confusion about whether eligibility screening would apply only to children or extend to caregivers or other household members.
Head Start began nearly sixty years ago during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty initiative and now serves over half a million low-income children nationwide.
