Twenty-one attorneys general challenged 2025 agency notices applying PRWORA immigration-verification rules to HUD, HHS, DOJ, Labor and Education programs; the District of Rhode Island vacated the notices on September 21, 2026.
NLIHC reported that on September 21 the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted summary judgment to a coalition of attorneys general led by New York and vacated HUD’s November 26, 2025 notice designating CDBG, HOME, Continuum of Care and other programs as “federal public benefits” requiring immigration-status verification under PRWORA, along with parallel notices from DOJ, HHS, Labor and Education. The court held the agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by skipping notice-and-comment rulemaking and left open the possibility of future rulemaking. The court docket lists the case as New York et al. v. U.S. Department of Justice et al., No. 1:25-cv-00345 (D.R.I.), with 21 attorneys general as plaintiffs.
HUD’s PRWORA notice was published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2025; a February 18, 2026 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion separately concluded PRWORA applies to all HUD housing programs.
HUD OIG issued a 25-page memorandum to HUD General Counsel David Woll comparing admission and termination requirements across public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, project-based rental assistance, Section 202/811, ESG, CoC, HOPWA and HOME for criminal activity, substance use and immigration status. The memo stated that because HUD has not issued regulations implementing PRWORA, it “still remains unclear the extent to which PRWORA applies to any HUD programs in practice,” and that programs not covered by Section 214 “might not impose any eligibility restrictions on the basis of immigration status.” It recounted the November 2025 HUD notice, HUD’s litigation stay in certain states, and the February 18, 2026 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion that partially superseded the notice.
The November 2025 HUD notice the memo analyzes was vacated by the District of Rhode Island on September 21, 2026, three days before the memo’s date.