Wisconsin immigrants can keep using clinics, Head Start and adult education, judge rules

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A federal judge has thrown out a controversial rule that would have required states to check the immigration status of anyone seeking to use federally funded adult education, Head Start, community health centers and other programs. 

The government did not give the required notice and public comment period when it released the rule last year, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy wrote in a Sept. 21 ruling. 

The ruling means millions of Wisconsinites — immigrant and native-born — won’t have to jump through hoops to prove their legal status before attending classes, seeing a doctor or receiving assistance at a food pantry. 

Federal agencies overhauled the rule in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump that dramatically reinterpreted a 1996 welfare law that had long barred many categories of immigrants from cash assistance and Medicaid. For three decades, the federal government has deemed that that law — the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act — does not apply to social safety net programs open to everyone, including a variety of educational, health and community services. 

Calling that exemption too broad, the Trump administration declared that nearly all federally funded programs would be available only to U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, refugees and people granted asylum or certain other humanitarian statuses.  

The new rule excluded undocumented immigrants and several categories of immigrants with legal status. Those ineligible included people with Temporary Protected Status, student or work visas and U visas for survivors of serious crimes, as well as people with pending asylum or U visa applications.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and 20 other state attorneys general quickly sued to block the new rule. The states argued that checking the immigration status of every participant in federally funded services would create unreasonable burdens for program staff and would discourage eligible people from seeking services.

“For the first time, millions of people are facing a new demand before they can access the Nation’s most essential programs: ‘show me your papers,’” the states wrote in a July 2025 complaint. 

The states argued that they would “suffer continued, irreparable harm if forced to dramatically restructure their social safety nets and render them inaccessible to countless of the States’ most vulnerable residents.” They accused the administration of violating a law that requires the federal government to give notice and seek public comment before releasing a new rule. 

The lawsuit put the rule on hold in those 21 states, first because of a voluntary agreement and later because of a temporary injunction. 

Now the judge has issued a final decision finding the rule violated the notice-and-comment requirement. Her ruling this week blocks the federal government from implementing or enforcing the new rule, but it doesn’t prohibit it from trying again. Federal agencies could issue a new rule if they comply with the notice and comment requirements, McElroy wrote.

Sabin Sidney, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, called the ruling “an unfortunate betrayal of hardworking, American taxpayers.” 

“This lawsuit demonstrates again that Democrats will adamantly defend federal taxpayer dollars supporting illegal aliens,” Sidney said, though the rule would also have excluded various groups of authorized immigrants.

Asked whether the agency planned to appeal or issue a new rule, Sidney referred Wisconsin Watch to the U.S. Department of Justice, which did not respond to a request for comment. 

Wisconsin clinics, classrooms keep welcoming immigrants

The rule, if it takes effect, could bar immigrants from receiving health care at the nation’s more than 17,000 community health center clinics, despite the fact that federal law requires those clinics to accept all local residents. One in seven people across the country use those clinics, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. In rural areas, it’s one in three.

Uncertainty surrounding the rule has already interfered with medical care, said Dr. Ken Loving, CEO of Access Community Health Centers, which provides medical, dental and mental health care at five southwest Wisconsin clinics. Many patients may not know the specifics of the case, Loving said, but they know politicians are trying to restrict access to care. 

“I think what does (register) is the drumbeat of questions about whether they’re going to be able to access care in the longer term. … It undermines trust in the system at large,” Loving said. 

“We try to focus on the health care we’re delivering to people, and we wind up having to spend a lot of time and effort just reassuring people that we’re there for them.”

In Wisconsin and the other states that sued, the rule has been on hold for more than a year while the lawsuit played out. But many other states have already adopted the restrictions, said Jacob Hofstetter, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute who is tracking the lawsuit and its implications for adult education students and teachers.

Many immigrants take classes to improve their English, build job skills or earn a high school equivalency. In some cases, these classes receive federal funding, which would have made them subject to the restrictions. A staff member at one adult education program — in a state that implemented the new rule  — told Hofstetter the program had kicked out a third of its students to comply.

The rule also created a “huge implementation burden” for adult education providers, who would now have to check — and understand — the specific immigration status of every student, Hofstetter said. 

“This isn’t just, ‘Do you have legal status or do you not have legal status?’” Hofstetter said, noting that programs, many of which are already stretching their resources to serve students, would need to develop expertise in immigration law.  

Under the rule, all students must provide proof that they qualify — not just immigrants. Hofstetter said he talked with some providers who’d been forced to turn away U.S.-born students who lacked the paperwork to prove their citizenship or just didn’t want to jump through another hurdle.

“(Staff) knew they were eligible to participate, but because they didn’t have that documentation, or they were unable to participate in that extra administrative step, they had to exclude those students as well,” Hofstetter said.

The new rule, if implemented, would make it harder for immigrants to learn English and obtain the skills employers need, Hofstetter and colleague Margie McHugh wrote in a January article, calling those “widely supported goals that the administration itself has publicly endorsed.” 

Worries remain

For now, Loving said, he and his colleagues at community health centers nationwide will keep watching this and other ongoing court cases that could discourage patients from seeking health care when they need it.

So too will staff at Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges, which would have to check the immigration status of all adult education students and some career training students if the administration reintroduces the restrictions. 

“As the legal process is likely still ongoing and the decision may be appealed, it may be premature for us to speculate on any potential future actions or changes,” said Katy Pettersen, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Hofstetter agrees. While the ruling offers some “relief,” he said, the Trump administration has consistently sought to create a hostile environment for immigrants as part of its wider push to limit new immigration and deport millions already here. 

“I don’t expect this to be a settled issue at all, especially since this has been such a priority for the administration,” Hofstetter said.

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

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