A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to keep funds flowing to programs that support the poorest families in Colorado and four other Democratic-led states — California, New York, Minnesota and Illinois — in a preliminary injunction Friday.
The injunction from Judge Vernon S. Broderick in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is a relief for Colorado’s safety net service providers and the families who depend on them. It’s also a win for Attorney General Phil Weiser, who sued the Trump administration to block its freeze of more than $300 million of annual funding to the state earlier this year.
Had the initial funding freeze announced in January taken effect, it could have gutted state programs that tens of thousands of Colorado’s lowest-income families rely on. The preliminary injunction will remain in place while the case plays out.
“These services are essential for Colorado families and today’s court ruling is a victory for them,” Weiser said in a statement.
In his letters to Gov. Jared Polis in early January announcing the funding freeze, Alex Adams, the assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alleged the programs that use the funding are rife with fraud and providing services to undocumented immigrants.
Adams targeted the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program, which provides cash assistance for basic needs to families with low incomes, the Child Care and Development Fund, which provides most of the funding for Colorado’s child care payment assistance program, and the Social Services Block Grant that supports at-risk youth and vulnerable adults, among others.
Adams requested Colorado provide the feds with state data about recipients of the TANF program and Social Services Block Grant funds, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates and any other state identification numbers, according to copies of the letters reviewed by The Colorado Sun. He also requested “verified attendance documentation for subsidized child care services to the State.”
At a hearing in the case last month, Judge Broderick, a President Barack Obama nominee, repeatedly asked the lawyer for the Trump administration, Kamika Shaw, for evidence of fraudulent use of the funds.
At times, Shaw said she did not know or did not have that information. At one point, she cited media reports of fraud, but could not provide any specific media report.
Shaw said she did not know who exactly drafted the letters sent to Polis and she did not know whether the Trump administration considered freezing funding for other states or exactly how it decided to target the five states.
Weiser and attorneys general for the other affected states say the Trump administration is targeting their states for political retribution and has not followed the law, which allows for penalizing states for noncompliance with the federal programs’ rules only after an investigation and with the opportunity to appeal.