The Justice Department put states on notice Wednesday: report illegal aliens to federal authorities or lose billions in welfare funding — meaning American tax dollars will no longer subsidize governments that shield illegal immigrants from deportation.
The DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel reversed a 1998 opinion that had let states limit reporting requirements to only the agencies directly administering welfare programs. Under the new interpretation, all state agencies — from DMVs to state colleges — must report individuals known to be unlawfully present to the Department of Homeland Security. "Failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock said in a statement.
The stakes are enormous. The two programs affected — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income — account for more than $76.5 billion in federal spending annually. All 50 states and Washington, D.C., participate. Illegal migrants are not eligible for either program, yet states have refused to turn over documentation that would expose illegal aliens accessing benefits or residing within their borders.
The legal foundation is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which defined "state" broadly. Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel said Congress wrote the reporting requirement "plainly." "When a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States," Gaiser said. "Tax dollars intended to help vulnerable Americans should not perversely encourage illegal entry into the United States, but rather should reinforce our laws and our borders."
For over two decades, the 1998 OLC opinion neutered that requirement by limiting it to the narrow slice of agencies administering the programs. Fox News reported the prior opinion "limited the reporting requirement to agencies administering the programs," while colleges, DMVs, and other state agencies that encounter illegal migrants were exempt. HotAir characterized the old opinion as "erroneous" and noted it "did not reflect the Congressional intent of the law it was addressing." Either way, the result was the same: a bureaucratic interpretation overriding plain statutory text for nearly 30 years.
Blue states have been the primary holdouts. Democrat-led states have already sued to block DHS from collecting personal details of people receiving TANF benefits. Courts have issued mixed rulings — limiting some information-sharing requirements while allowing federal authorities to collect Medicaid data in certain cases.
The pattern is clear: states have collected federal money while actively obstructing the immigration enforcement those same federal statutes require. The 1998 opinion gave them cover. Now that cover is gone.
Whether the courts will let this stand is the open question. But the principle is straightforward — if a state takes federal money, it follows federal law. For working Americans bearing the cost of illegal immigration in their communities, the real question is why it took 28 years to enforce what Congress wrote plainly in the first place.
