Trump loses lawsuit over public aid restrictions for migrants

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, issued a permanent injunction against a Trump administration rule that would have required broad citizenship checks before people could access federally funded aid programs like Head Start and food banks. She ruled the government violated the Administrative Procedure Act by imposing the changes without the required public notice-and-comment process.

The rule, stemming from a February 2025 executive order titled 'Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,' reinterpreted a 1996 law to apply citizenship verification to programs previously excluded, including ones available to people in the country legally. McElroy noted the change caused 'chaos,' quoting the states' lawsuit, and observed that people living in poverty often lack the government identification the rule would demand.

The administration had already agreed to rescind the policy pending proper rulemaking and argued this made the case moot, but McElroy disagreed, ruling the conduct could recur, declaring the rule unlawful, vacating it, and leaving the door open only for a version built through the process it skipped the first time.

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