Key facts
- The Justice Department has reversed a nearly 30-year-old policy requiring states to report undocumented immigrants.
- States receiving federal funding for TANF or SSI programs must now report all individuals known to be in the country illegally.
- Failure to comply with the new reporting requirements could lead to the loss of billions of dollars in welfare funding.
- The previous interpretation limited reporting to specific state agencies administering the federal programs.
- The new policy is not retroactive and states can opt out of the affected programs if they object.
The U.S. Justice Department has issued a new legal opinion that reverses a nearly 30-year-old policy, mandating that states receiving federal funds for low-income support programs must expand their reporting of undocumented immigrants to the federal government. Under the revised interpretation, any state participating in programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) must now report undocumented immigrants across all branches of its state government, rather than solely through the specific welfare office administering the federal program. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock argued that the previous 1998 interpretation was based on flawed legal reasoning. The administration has repeatedly sought to penalize states that have tried to limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The change could face legal challenges from Democratic states, which have already sued to block DHS from seeing personal details of people receiving funds under one of the programs. Federal TANF grants exceed $16.5 billion annually, and SSI federal benefits exceed $60 billion annually. The DOJ opinion is binding on federal agencies but is not law. States could have knowledge of millions of people without legal immigration status inside their borders through various means, including driver's licenses and university admissions.