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New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
‘Head Start' education program will be cut off for immigrants without legal status, Trump admin says
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will restrict immigrants in the country illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday. The move is part of a broad effort to limit access to federal benefits for immigrants who lack legal status. People in the country illegally are largely ineligible for federal public benefits such as food stamps, student loans and financial aid for higher education. But for decades they have been able to access some community-level programs such as Head Start and community health centers. HHS said it will reclassify those programs as federal public benefits, excluding immigrants in the country illegally from accessing them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the changes were part of a larger effort to protect American citizens' interests. 3 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a congressional hearing. Michael Brochstein/ZUMA / 'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,' Kennedy said in a statement. 'Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.' A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start, said that eligibility will be determined based on the child's immigration status. Requiring proof of immigration status would likely create fear and confusion among families seeking to enroll their children, said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association. 'This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children and disregards decades of evidence that Head Start is essential to our collective future,' Vinci said. 3 Requiring proof of immigration status would likely create fear and confusion among families seeking to enroll their children, said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association. AP The changes are part of a multi-agency announcement rescinding an interpretation of federal law dating to former President Bill Clinton's administration, which had allowed immigrants in the country illegally to access some programs. The Education Department, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor announced similar changes affecting a range of workforce development and adult education programs. The changes will affect community health centers that immigrants rely on for a wide range of services, said Shelby Gonzales, vice president of immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 'People depend on those services to get cancer treatment, to get ongoing maintenance for a variety of different health needs,' she said. 3 The changes will affect community health centers that immigrants rely on for a wide range of services, said Shelby Gonzales, vice president of immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. AP Students in the country illegally will no longer be eligible to participate in postsecondary career and technical education programs or adult education programs, the Education Department announced. The department also issued a notice to grant recipients to ensure programs receiving federal money do not provide services to immigrants without legal status. Education advocates said the decision would harm young people who have grown up in this country. EdTrust Vice President Augustus Mays said the intention appears to be creating fear among immigrant communities. 'Policies like this don't exist in a vacuum,' Mays said. 'They are rooted in a political agenda that scapegoats immigrants and uses fear to strip rights and resources from the most vulnerable among us.' Head Start was started six decades ago as part of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. It operates in all 50 states, providing preschool, developmental therapy and child care for families who are homeless or are in poverty.
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
New Trump rule immediately bans undocumented immigrants from Head Start child care
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced Thursday that effective immediately, undocumented immigrants will no longer be allowed to attend Head Start, the federal program that provides child care, nutrition and health assistance to 800,000 low-income infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. The announcement bars all people living in the country without legal status from a suite of federally funding public programs, including health clinics, family planning and the low energy assistance program. While those living in the country illegally are prohibited from using most federal programs, a 1998 notice allowed them to access certain benefits relied on by low-income families with young children. In a press release, however, Kennedy announced that HHS was rescinding this interpretation, limiting the ability of low-income immigrant families to use more than a dozen federal programs run by the agency. 'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,' said Kennedy. 'Today's action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.' Head Start has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment over the last 60 years of the program, according a statement from the National Head Start Association. 'Attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families who are focused on raising healthy children, ready to succeed in school and life,' said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association. 'This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children and disregards decades of evidence that Head Start is essential to our collective future.' HHS estimates that prohibiting undocumented immigrants from accessing Head Start would save $374 million in services annually, while costing $21 million in time spent by individuals trying document and review eligibility, as well as transition costs for the Head Start program. . 'Today, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the Administration is taking the biggest step in more than 30 years to protect taxpayer-funded benefits for American citizens — NOT illegal aliens,' the White House said in a press release. 'The move, which preserves roughly $40 billion in benefits for American citizens, overturns decades of bureaucratic defiance and builds on President Trump's executive order directing an END to the subsidization of open borders.' The announcement shook the Head Start industry, which has already been reeling this year from a series of program layoffs, cuts, and threats to terminate the program entirely. Head Start leaders said it was not clear how the directive will be carried out. The memo did not specify, for example, whether immigration status would be checked for the parents or the child, said Ed Condon, executive director of the Region 9 Head Start Assn., which represents four states, including California. 'Family status takes us down one road and child status would take us down another. Most of the kids we serve are citizens,' said Condon. It was also unclear whether the change would apply to all Head Start centers, including those run by school districts. 'Everybody is on hold. But this is not good news.' Limiting access to the program could also deter parents without legal status from enrolling their citizen children in Head Start, said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now and a former California Assembly member. 'We guarantee every kid an education in this country, regardless of status,' he said. 'That shouldn't be different in terms of early education, and certainly not when it comes to Head Start.' The federal action — which comes on the tail of additional cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food assistance in the just-approved Republican budget — will impact some of the most vulnerable young children in the nation, child care experts said. 'Lower income families often avail themselves of multiple services,' including housing, energy and food assistance, said Donna Sneeringer, chief strategy officer for the Child Care Resource Center, which provides Head Start services to 2,500 children in Southern California. 'They are doing everything they can to put the pieces together to care for their families.' The notice announcing the change in policy will be published in the Federal Registry, at which point a 30-day public comment period will begin. HHS said the change, however, is effective immediately because 'any delay would be contrary to the public interest and fail to address the ongoing emergency at the Southern Border of the United States. In a press release, the ACLU said that if the notice takes effect, plaintiffs in a lawsuit that was filed in April challenging attacks by the Trump administration to Head Start plan to amend their complaint to include the changes. This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr moves to kick thousands of undocumented kids off low-income Head Start pre-K program
Undocumented children will no longer be able to access federally funded Head Start programs for low-income families, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced on Thursday as part of a sweeping redefinition of eligibility for the scheme. 'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,' Kennedy said in a statement. 'Today's action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.' Under the policy change, the Department of Health and Human Services has scrapped a 1998 guidance which allowed undocumented people to access certain programs that were not technically considered 'federal public benefits' under a 1996 welfare reform law. The National Head Start Association criticized today's announcement, saying there was 'no good reason' to deny low-income immigrant children access to initiatives like Head Start, which comprises a suite of early-childhood learning, health, and nutrition programs. 'The Head Start Act has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment over the last 60 years,' executive director Yasmina Vinci wrote. 'Attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families who are focused on raising healthy children, ready to succeed in school and life.' The Department of Health and Human Services claims the changes will free up as much as $347 million in additional Head Start services, which represents about three percent of the program's annual budget, according to Chalkbeat. The Independent has contacted the agency for more details, including its estimates on the number of undocumented children actually using Head Start. Data about the topic is limited, though information suggests such children may make up only a small part of the federal program. Immigrant children are about seven times less likely to enroll in center-based childcare like Head Start than their U.S.-born counterparts, according to one 2019 paper, and undocumented children likely make up a low, single-digit percentage of the overall population of children in the U.S. The change in federal eligibility, which also applies to programs like federally funded health centers, substance abuse disorder initiatives, and family planning programs, immediately took effect, but is open to public comment for the next 30 days. The shift could put the administration at odds with a 1982 Supreme Court decision that ruled children have a right to access public education regardless of their citizenship status. Under Kennedy, the health agency has made a number of moves to align with the administration's emphasis on ending illegal immigration, including seeking to prevent states from diverting Medicare and Medicaid funding to ineligible immigrants, and providing information from its Office of Refugee Resettlement to the Department of Homeland Security. In April, civil rights and health groups sued the agency for blocking $65.8 million in family planning grants to at least seven states, in what they claimed was retaliation for these jurisdictions' stances on diversity and immigration.
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Head Start will be cut off for immigrants without legal status, Trump administration says
Advertisement 'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,' Kennedy said in a statement. 'Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start, said that eligibility will be determined based on the child's immigration status. Requiring proof of immigration status would likely create fear and confusion among families seeking to enroll their children, said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association. 'This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children and disregards decades of evidence that Head Start is essential to our collective future,' Vinci said. Advertisement The changes are part of a multi-agency announcement rescinding an interpretation of federal law dating to former President Bill Clinton's administration, which had allowed immigrants in the country illegally to access some programs. The Education Department, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor announced similar changes affecting a range of workforce development and adult education programs. The changes will affect community health centers that immigrants rely on for a wide range of services, said Shelby Gonzales, vice president of immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 'People depend on those services to get cancer treatment, to get ongoing maintenance for a variety of different health needs,' she said. Students in the country illegally will no longer be eligible to participate in postsecondary career and technical education programs or adult education programs, the Education Department announced. The department also issued a notice to grant recipients to ensure programs receiving federal money do not provide services to immigrants without legal status. Education advocates said the decision would harm young people who have grown up in this country. EdTrust Vice President Augustus Mays said the intention appears to be creating fear among immigrant communities. 'Policies like this don't exist in a vacuum,' Mays said. 'They are rooted in a political agenda that scapegoats immigrants and uses fear to strip rights and resources from the most vulnerable among us.' Head Start was started six decades ago as part of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. It operates in all 50 states, providing preschool, developmental therapy and child care for families who are homeless or are in poverty. Associated Press writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this report. Advertisement
The Independent
7 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
RFK Jr moves to kick thousands of undocumented kids off low-income Head Start pre-K program
Undocumented children will no longer be able to access federally funded Head Start programs for low-income families, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced on Thursday as part of a sweeping redefinition of eligibility for the scheme. 'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,' Kennedy said in a statement. 'Today's action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.' Under the policy change, the Department of Health and Human Services has scrapped a 1998 guidance which allowed undocumented people to access certain programs that were not technically considered 'federal public benefits' under a 1996 welfare reform law. The National Head Start Association criticized today's announcement, saying there was 'no good reason' to deny low-income immigrant children access to initiatives like Head Start, which comprises a suite of early-childhood learning, health, and nutrition programs. 'The Head Start Act has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment over the last 60 years,' executive director Yasmina Vinci wrote. 'Attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families who are focused on raising healthy children, ready to succeed in school and life.' The Department of Health and Human Services claims the changes will free up as much as $347 million in additional Head Start services, which represents about three percent of the program's annual budget, according to Chalkbeat. The Independent has contacted the agency for more details, including its estimates on the number of undocumented children actually using Head Start. Data about the topic is limited, though information suggests such children may make up only a small part of the federal program. Immigrant children are about seven times less likely to enroll in center-based childcare like Head Start than their U.S.-born counterparts, according to one 2019 paper, and undocumented children likely make up a low, single-digit percentage of the overall population of children in the U.S. The change in federal eligibility, which also applies to programs like federally funded health centers, substance abuse disorder initiatives, and family planning programs, immediately took effect, but is open to public comment for the next 30 days. The shift could put the administration at odds with a 1982 Supreme Court decision that ruled children have a right to access public education regardless of their citizenship status. Under Kennedy, the health agency has made a number of moves to align with the administration's emphasis on ending illegal immigration, including seeking to prevent states from diverting Medicare and Medicaid funding to ineligible immigrants, and providing information from its Office of Refugee Resettlement to the Department of Homeland Security. In April, civil rights and health groups sued the agency for blocking $65.8 million in family planning grants to at least seven states, in what they claimed was retaliation for these jurisdictions' stances on diversity and immigration.
