President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the country illegally.
The White House said the order seeks to end “all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens” but it was not clear which benefits will be targeted, according to the Guardian.
People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care. Children are entitled to a free K-12 public education regardless of immigration status under a 1982 supreme court ruling.
The order notes that a 1996 welfare overhaul denies most public benefits to people in the country illegally but says that law has been gradually undermined. “Over the last 4 years, in particular, the prior administration repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources.”
Trump’s order appears to have other targets, some already subjects of earlier edicts and Justice Department lawsuits, the newspaper said. It directs all departments and agencies to identify federal benefit spending that is inconsistent with the 1996 welfare law. It also seeks to ensure that state and local governments are not using federal funds for policies that support “sanctuary” policies or encourage illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan refused to block Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing private government data systems or participating in government employee dismissals, The Guardian also reported.
The federal judge said although some of the concerns raised by 14 states about Musk's "unchecked authority" were legitimate, there wasn't enough evidence to support the claims of violation and therefore lacked a justification for the suspension.
“DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion,” she wrote.
This is not the only lawsuit against president Trump's ally. NPR reported that watchdog groups filed a complaint in federal court for the District of Columbia in a bid to stop DOGE from peeking into sensitive taxpayer information at the Internal Revenue Service.
"DOGE and its game of governmental whack-a-mole has wreaked havoc on the American system of government and caused incredible concern for the privacy of the American public," read the complaint.
