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.
