“Reinterpreting public benefits may sound like Beltway bureaucracy but the Trump administration is using that strategy to cause devastating real-life harm to hardworking, tax-paying immigrant families. In doing so, the administration is undermining our health, schools, communities, and our economy.

“It is punitive, cruel and counterproductive to take away legal status from millions of immigrants who have been living in the United States for many years and also to deny immigrant families access to critical health and education programs – including Head Start, Dual Language Learner programs, community health centers, care for mental health and substance abuse disorders, and Title X family planning services. This move will harm immigrants who are essential to our care workforce, our economy, and our country’s future, and undermine the prospects of children in immigrant families, including many who are U.S. citizens.

“Reinterpreting public benefits is cruel and unnecessary and we are gravely concerned that the confusion this causes will also result in people being unfairly denied access to SNAP, WIC, and other life-sustaining programs. Recent national polls show that Americans widely disapprove of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Moms, like all Americans, know that immigrants are essential to our families, our communities, our care infrastructure, and our economy.  Limiting funding for and access to early childhood education, public schools, and health care will make our nation less healthy, less innovative, and less prosperous.  

“Our country needs a safe and orderly immigration process that balances compassion and security, not cuts to health and education and not this kind of senseless cruelty. America’s moms want every immigrant and every asylum-seeker to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.”