The Justice Department Withdraws a Clinton-Era Opinion and Tells Every Agency of Every State — DMVs and Public Universities Included — to Report Undocumented Immigrants to DHS or Put $76 Billion in Welfare Money at Risk
On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel published an opinion withdrawing a 1998 Clinton-administration opinion and sharply expanding which parts of state government must report people they know to be unlawfully present in the United States to the Department of Homeland Security. The 1996 welfare-reform law conditions participation in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income on reporting known undocumented immigrants to federal immigration authorities. The 1998 opinion read that duty narrowly, as binding only the state agencies that actually administer TANF and SSI benefits. The new opinion reads it to reach every agency of any state that takes the money — motor vehicle departments, public universities, and state and local bodies that never touch a welfare file. The stakes are large: federal TANF block grants run past $16.4 billion a year and federal SSI benefits exceed $60 billion. The Office of Legal Counsel said states that do not want the obligation are free to stop taking the funds. The opinion arrived days after a coalition of Democratic attorneys general sued to stop DHS from getting TANF data at all, and it is expected to draw its own legal challenge from Democratic-led states.
“Congress wrote this requirement plainly. When a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States.”