A banner of U.S. President Donald Trump hangs outside the Department of Justice (DOJ) building on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington, DC.
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In a new legal opinion, the Justice Department said all states must now report to the Department of Homeland Security any illegal immigrants known to be in their state or risk losing federal funding for programs that help low-income people.
In issuing this opinion, the Department of Justice amended a previous 1998 Office of the General Counsel opinion that required only certain state agencies administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income programs to provide information to federal immigration authorities.
“Congress clearly wrote this requirement,” Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Geyser of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in a statement.
“If a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States,” Geiser said. “Tax dollars meant to help vulnerable Americans should not perversely encourage illegal immigration into the United States, but rather strengthen our laws and borders.”
The Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday that the Office of the General Counsel’s Sept. 1 opinion “illustrates that Congress broadly defined ‘state’ in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.”
“As a result, when a state accepts federal TANF or SSI funds, the entire state government, including all constituent agencies, is obligated by federal law to share with DHS information about individuals the state knows do not have a lawful presence,” the Justice Department said.
The new opinion applies only affirmatively and does not apply to past enrollments in TANF and SSI.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories participate in both programs. According to the Department of Justice, federal TANF funding grants exceed $16.4 billion annually.
“Our clarifications do not impose new obligations on states,” said Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, a staff member of the Office of the General Counsel who wrote the new opinion.
“This simply restores the original meaning of the statute enacted by Congress and ensures that DHS receives the information it is legally entitled to,” Craddock said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stand near Delaney Hall, which is used as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, on May 26, 2026, in Newark, New Jersey.
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“States that accept TANF funding must comply with federal law, and failure to do so can lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding.”
CNBC asked the attorneys general of more than a dozen major U.S. states to comment on the new opinion and whether they plan to object to the guidance.
This is developing news. Please check back for details.
