1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Block this DOJ legal opinion immediately. The Department of Justice just reversed a 30-year policy to force states receiving TANF or SSI funding to report undocumented immigrants across their entire state government — not just through the welfare office administering the program. This is a solution in search of a problem: undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for TANF. The only purpose this serves is to turn every state agency that touches federal welfare funding into an immigration surveillance apparatus. The cruelty here is deliberate. The new opinion even lowers the legal bar for what counts as "knowing" someone is undocumented, allowing agencies to act on informal information without any formal adjudication. States that refuse can simply be cut off from programs that millions of low-income families, elderly residents, and disabled people depend on. That is coercion, not law enforcement. Push back on this opinion through legislation, oversight hearings, or legal challenge — and do it now before states begin complying.