Citizenship Groups Seek Nationwide Block on Trump Cuts
April 7, 2025
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President Donald Trump’s decision to cut all funding to groups that help legal migrants become American citizens is being challenged in a federal court.
Why It Matters
Some groups are already cutting services, and the case will significantly affect immigration services in the United States.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Solutions In Hometown Connections via email for comment on Monday.
What To Know
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has cut all funding to the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program (CIGP), which was administered through the DHS and educated legal migrants about how to apply for citizenship.
The Washington Post reported on April 2 that dozens of community and faith-based groups, public libraries, and adult education and literacy organizations “received notices Thursday informing them that their work ‘no longer effectuates the program goals and the Department’s priorities.'”
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., on January 28, 2025. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., on January 28, 2025. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Getty Images
One of those groups, Solutions In Hometown Connections, is the lead plaintiff in a legal challenge in Maryland federal court to stop the cuts. They claim that as soon as they came to court to challenge the Trump administration’s freezing of funds, DHS canceled the program entirely.
“Two days after Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary relief challenged Defendants’ indefinite freeze of grant funds, Defendants terminated the grants,” the plaintiff lawyers state in a filing on April 7.
“Plaintiffs challenge Defendants’ unlawful freeze and now mass termination of CIGP grants as statutory, regulatory, and constitutional violations—all claims within this Court’s wheelhouse and jurisdiction.”
They allege that the decision to end the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” a legal term used when a court is asked to examine the reasoning behind a policy decision.
They requested a nationwide injunction against the decision after the DHS strongly objected to nationwide injunctions in its filing to the court.
“While Defendants spend nearly three pages inveighing against nationwide injunctions, the Fourth Circuit has approved nationwide injunctions,” the plaintiffs wrote.
“Here, Defendants have frozen and terminated grant funds based on Secretary Noem’s vague and unexplained concerns.”
“And they did so on an across-the-board basis, without consideration or evaluation of individual recipients.”
“Put simply, the government must reap what it sows,” the plaintiffs write.
What People Are Saying
Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, in an April 4 statement: “Stripping funding for these incredibly useful, necessary programs is a devastating, foolish decision.
“English and U.S. civics classes, along with application assistance, help hardworking immigrants navigate the costly, complex path to U.S. citizenship — allowing them to contribute even more to our society. Without these programs, the bar becomes too high for too many.”
What Happens Next
The Maryland court must first decide whether to impose a temporary restraining order on the Department of Homeland Security. In doing so, it will have to decide whether to impose a nationwide restraining order or whether the order should apply only in states where plaintiffs’ organizations reside.
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