Court halts Trump’s ‘unlawful attempt’ to gut social services for Caribbean immigrants

NEW YORK, CMC – New York Attorney General Letitia James has welcomed a court ruling preventing the Trump administration’s “unlawful attempt” to stop essential health, education and social service programmes for low-income families, including Caribbean immigrants.

“From cancer screenings to food banks to early childhood education, the federal government’s attempts to decimate the social safety net would have been catastrophic for working families,” James said, adding “we fought back, and today a federal court ruled that this cruel and unjust policy of deprivation is unlawful and cannot stand”.

In July last, the Trump administration announced a new policy redefining broad swaths of federally funded programmes as restricted “federal public benefits”, now subject to immigration verification under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).