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🇬🇧 United Kingdom /Elections & Politics

Justice Department orders US states to broaden reporting of undocumented immigrants

From The Guardian · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • The US Justice Department has directed states to expand how they report undocumented immigrants to the federal government.
  • A legal opinion from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel says the duty applies across state governments, not only to welfare offices.
  • The change reverses a policy that had been in place for nearly 30 years and applies to states receiving federal support funding.

The US Justice Department has ordered states to widen their reporting of undocumented immigrants, overturning a policy that had governed the process for almost three decades.

The new position appears in a legal opinion issued Tuesday by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel. It says the obligation to report does not stop with the state agency that administers a welfare program.

Instead, any state receiving federal money through support programs for low-income Americans must report undocumented immigrants across its entire state government. The programs named in the opinion include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, and Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

The opinion therefore expands the reporting duty from specific welfare offices to state governments more broadly. The order represents a reversal of the previous policy, which had limited the scope of the requirement for nearly 30 years.

About this summary

Originally published by The Guardian in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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