The Department of Justice issued a warning for states across the country, stating that they could potentially lose billions of dollars in welfare funding if they do not comply with requirements to report known illegal aliens to the federal government, according to a recently released legal opinion, no doubt angering pro-immigration activists.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel went on to say that states participating in two key welfare programs must require all state agencies to report anyone who is known to be in the U.S. illegally to the Department of Homeland Security, which is a significant move that the administration says will aid in the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The opinion is a reversal of 1998 Office of Legal Counsel interpretation that placed limits on the reporting requirement to agencies that administer these programs. Before the recent opinion, only the state agencies that administered the funding for the programs were required to report information about illegal migrants.
According to a report from Fox News, other state agencies that might have been aware of illegal aliens, which included colleges and departments of motor vehicles, weren’t subject to the reporting requirements. “Failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock went on to say in a statement.
Since returning to the Oval Office in January 2025, President Trump has been aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, an effort that has included the deployment of federal agents to cities across the U.S. to conduct raids on migrant communities and working with state and local law enforcement to help find suspected illegal aliens.
Many Democrat-run states have opposed Trump’s immigration agenda, going so far as to pass laws to prevent local and state law enforcement departments from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The president has been pushing back against the left by threatening to cut off federal funding from states who have these prohibitions in place.
The shift could also face some legal challenges. A number of Democrat-run states have already filed lawsuits to block the Department of Homeland Security from collecting personal details of people receiving funds under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Courts have also restricted some of the administration’s efforts to require sharing information on migrants with DHS.
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All 50 states in the country and Washington, D.C., participate in reporting requirements that are tied to two specific programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income. Grants for TANF usually exceed $16.5 billion a year, with Supplemental Security Income benefits exceeding $60 billion annually.
It goes without saying, but all of these programs are funded by taxpayers, which is why so many Americans are in favor of President Trump’s immigration enforcement operation. Conservatives and common sense Americans are already struggling to provide for their families on a weekly basis. The enormous amount of taxes being taken from their paychecks and being spent on illegal aliens is a breaking point for most.