Head Start will be cut off for immigrants without legal status, Trump
administration says
[July 11, 2025]
BY ANNIE MA
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.
“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.
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.
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Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at
Easterseals South Florida, Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP
Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
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.
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Associated Press writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this
report.
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