In response to HHS bans disabling immigrants’ access to taxpayer-funded programs, public education advocacy organization Alliance for Quality Education released the following statement:

“The federal government’s actions today are a calculated attack on immigrant communities. Cutting students and families off from Head Start, mental health care, adult education, and other essential services under the pretense of fairness is not just misleading, it’s deeply unjust. It highlights, yet again, how this nation continues to rely on the labor of immigrant communities while denying them the support needed to live, care for their families, and fully participate in daily life. This is cruelty disguised as governance. But it’s not going to stop us from fighting back,” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and Marina Marcou-O’Malley, Co-Executive Directors, Alliance for Quality Education.

“Many of us – if not we ourselves, then those who came before us – arrived in this country in search of safety, stability, and a brighter future. To deny that chance to others today is not only hypocritical, it’s indefensible.

This is the time to speak up – for justice and for the future we all hope to share.”