Federal court ruled that agency reinterpretations of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)

Federal court ruled that agency reinterpretations of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) restricting noncitizens’ access to public benefits, including postsecondary education programs, are unlawful.

On September 21, 2026, Judge Mary S. McElroy of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled that revised agency interpretations of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) which sought to restrict the ability of noncitizens to access public benefits are unlawful.

Title IV of PRWORA prohibits certain classes of noncitizens from receiving various federal, state, and local public benefits, with agencies granting exceptions for numerous programs, including those that constitute “widely available services,” such as some postsecondary education programs. In July 2025, several agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, issued notices purporting to reinterpret PRWORA to apply to a multitude of programs that had previously been excluded in an attempt to restrict noncitizens’ access to public benefits programs. Plaintiffs, twenty states and the District of Columbia, challenged the new interpretations as unlawful and won, safeguarding noncitizens’ receipt of previously excluded public benefits from the limitations of PRWORA.

To read more about the case, see here.