A federal judge in the United States has issued a temporary injunction, blocking the Trump administration's controversial move to halt the flow of vital childcare and low-income family support funds to five states led by Democratic governors.
Legal Challenge Halts "Operational Chaos"
On Friday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that the administration could not immediately freeze billions of dollars destined for key grant programmes in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The states had urgently argued that the sudden policy shift, announced just days earlier, was causing immediate "operational chaos" and harming families.
The judge, appointed by President Joe Biden, did not make a final ruling on the legality of the funding pause. Instead, he determined the states had met the legal threshold to "protect the status quo" for at least 14 days while further arguments are heard in court.
Controversial Justification for Funding Pause
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had stated it was pausing the funds because it had "reason to believe" the states were providing benefits to people residing in the country illegally. However, the department provided no evidence to support this claim and offered no explanation for why it singled out these five states and not others.
The affected programmes are critical to social support structures: the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidises care for 1.3 million children from low-income families; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programme for cash aid and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant. The five states collectively receive over $10bn annually from these schemes.
Political Motivations and Wider Crackdown
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the multi-state lawsuit, hailed the judge's decision as a "critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration's cruelty." The states contend the data request from HHS—which sought names and Social Security numbers of all beneficiaries since 2022—is unconstitutional and politically motivated, targeting political adversaries rather than tackling fraud.
In a parallel development, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a separate freeze of roughly $130m in annual funding to Minnesota, citing the state's alleged failure to prevent fraud in a pandemic-era child nutrition programme. This follows a major fraud case involving the non-profit Feeding Our Future.
Minnesota's Governor Tim Walz and its Somali community have become particular targets for the administration. The state's attorney general, Keith Ellison, has vowed to fight this new funding freeze in court as well.
The ruling underscores the escalating legal battles between Democratic states and the Trump administration over social policy and the allocation of federal resources, with the wellbeing of millions of low-income families hanging in the balance.
