Trump Orders Federal Purge of Migrants from Safety Net
In a sweeping reinterpretation of 1996 welfare law, HHS now bars millions from programs including early education, mental health care, adoption support, and recovery services.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a new notice that significantly revises how it interprets the term “Federal public benefit” under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), expanding the programs subject to immigration-related restrictions and effectively reversing a 1998 interpretation that had narrowed the law’s scope.
The reinterpretation, published as an HHS notice pending formal Federal Register publication, replaces the 1998 HHS PRWORA Notice and clarifies that a wider array of health, education, and welfare programs are considered “Federal public benefits,” which are generally unavailable to individuals who are not “qualified aliens” under PRWORA.
Under the new interpretation, HHS states that the 1998 notice improperly narrowed the scope of the law by excluding certain block grants, programs like Head Start, and other benefits based on statutory reasoning HHS now calls flawed. The department argues that the plain text of the statute requires a broader interpretation and that benefits provided to individuals, households, or family eligibility units through programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Head Start fall squarely under the legal definition of “Federal public benefit.”
The notice also directly ties the revision to recent immigration policy shifts, including President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14218, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” and his January 2025 declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. HHS said that immediate implementation of the interpretation—prior to the conclusion of a 30-day public comment period—was necessary to “remove incentives to illegal immigration” and prevent further strain on public benefit systems.
Programs newly recognized as “Federal public benefits” under this updated interpretation include:
Head Start
Title X Family Planning Program
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)
Health Center Program
Substance Use Prevention and Recovery Services Block Grant
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder programs
Title IV-E programs for foster care and adoption assistance
Health workforce programs including scholarships and loan repayments
HHS acknowledges that this change in position may result in many noncitizens losing access to certain federally funded services and anticipates a “reduction in improper expenditures of taxpayer resources.” A partial economic analysis focused on the Head Start program estimates that the change will redirect $374 million annually in expenditures toward U.S. citizens and “qualified aliens,” with possible effects ranging from $184 million to $1.88 billion depending on program participation rates.
The department emphasizes that the change is not merely a regulatory adjustment but a legal correction in response to what it sees as a misreading of the law. “The Department has no power to override Congress’s will,” the notice states, citing the 2024 Supreme Court decision Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo as a guiding precedent rejecting agency interpretations that deviate from clear statutory text.
The revised interpretation is effective immediately and applies to all current and future HHS programs unless otherwise exempted. HHS invites public comments but asserts that any delay in implementation “would be contrary to the public interest” and would “fail to address the ongoing emergency at the Southern Border.”