The Trump administration’s attack on immigrants is a whole-of-government effort. There’s no lever he won’t pull, no cruelty too petty or vast. On Thursday, a few Cabinet departments debuted their newest move: redefining what “federal public benefit” means so that undocumented immigrants can no longer access a host of resources. 

Buckle up—we have to get a bit wonky. 

Broadly speaking, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for “federal public benefits” under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, or PRWORA. The more programs the administration can stuff under that definition, the more things they can withhold from undocumented people. 

Even prior to PRWORA, undocumented immigrants were largely excluded from direct assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Things get trickier outside of that context, which is why there are lengthy guides on this from immigration groups, as well as detailed congressional reports. The administration is working on sweeping all those distinctions, all that nuance, away so that it can get to the same bottom line it always does: taking things away in order to hurt people. 

On Thursday, the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor put out press releases that were substantially similar, gleefully boasting about how they’ve further managed to marginalize undocumented people. Each statement declares, either explicitly or in essence, that certain programs they administer are now federal public benefits and therefore can’t go to undocumented immigrants. 

Why? Because they say so, basically. 

Education’s statement declares the department is rescinding part of a 1997 “Dear Colleague” letter issued during the Clinton administration, which defined exceptions to PRWORA’s federal benefits definition. Is that letter linked in the press release? Heavens, no. Is it easy to find otherwise on a government site? Nope! Is there any legal analysis underpinning the administration’s assertion that the definition has been wrong since 1997, and they’re just setting things straight? Lol. 

But here’s the big change, and it’s ugly: Previously, if a federal public benefit was administered at the community level, then it was not a direct benefit to someone who was able to access that community resource. For example, undocumented immigrants could enroll in Head Start or could get food from a food bank because they weren’t receiving the benefit directly.

Not anymore. The new interpretation now seems to be that even an indirect, non-cash service cannot go to undocumented immigrants. So what does that look like?

Per HHS, undocumented immigrants can no longer access Head Start, an early childhood education program for low-income families. They can’t go to many federally funded health clinics, they can’t get mental health services or substance abuse treatment funded by community block grants, and they can’t get family-planning services funded by Title X. 

And if you thought it was an exaggeration to say that this new, stretched-beyond-recognition definition of “federal public benefit” would mean that an undocumented immigrant can’t get food from a food bank that receives federal funding, just peep Thursday’s Department of Agriculture notice in the Federal Register:

Accordingly, the ultimate beneficiaries to whom federal funds flow from a contract or grant provided by FNS or appropriated funds of the United States are recipients of a “Federal public benefit.” For example, if a food bank receives a grant which is used to purchase food for distribution, the individual who receives the food assistance has received a “Federal public benefit.”

Besides excluding undocumented immigrants from a host of resources, this creates an additional—and certainly intended—problem. Any organization that receives block grants or other federal funding will now have to begin aggressively policing those they serve, demanding citizenship verification. 

HHS programs got the brunt of this today, which is no real surprise given how this administration hates poor people almost as much as they hate immigrants, so slashing benefits targeted at lower-income people will always get them hyped. Over at the Education Department, the new special redefinition means that undocumented immigrants can’t access adult education programs or career and technical education that receive federal funding.

The administration has not been shy about using the tools of violence to push immigrants out of public life. But deploying soft power like this, by withholding resources, is just as dangerous—so of course they’re doing it.