Overview

• On July 10, the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Labor and Justice formally rescinded 1997–98 guidance that had exempted certain programs from PRWORA’s immigrant eligibility restrictions
• The Education Department’s new interpretive rule ends undocumented immigrants’ access to federal postsecondary, career, technical and adult education grants and takes effect August 9
• HHS has expanded its definition of “federal public benefit” to include 44 programs—among them Head Start and Title X family planning—and opened a 30-day public comment period on the proposal
• USDA instructed state agencies to tighten identity and immigration verification for SNAP eligibility, emphasizing that “illegal aliens should not receive government dollars”
• HHS estimates that barring non-citizens from Head Start could free up to $374 million annually in additional services for eligible U.S. families