DOJ legal opinion expanded welfare-reporting mandate to all state agencies, tying future TANF/SSI funding to reporting immigrants to DHS

On September 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a 19-page opinion, authored by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, concluding that the reporting requirement in the 1996 federal welfare-reform law extends to every agency of a state government, not merely the specific agencies that administer Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The opinion directs states receiving TANF or SSI funds to report to the Department of Homeland Security any individual a state agency believes is unlawfully present in the country, reversing a 1998 OLC opinion that had confined the reporting duty to the welfare-administering agencies themselves.

Every state, along with the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, receives TANF or SSI funding, so the reinterpretation reaches state agencies with no connection to welfare administration -- motor-vehicle departments, schools, and state and local police, among others. DOJ said states already out of compliance will not have existing funding clawed back, but that future TANF and SSI dollars are contingent on adopting the broadened reporting practice going forward.

Craddock characterized the opinion as a "clarification" restoring Congress's original intent rather than a new mandate, and OLC head T. Elliot Gaiser said in a statement that "Congress wrote this requirement plainly." NOTUS, NBC News and CNN reported the opinion is the latest in a series of Trump-administration attempts to condition federal funding on state cooperation with immigration enforcement -- attempts federal judges have, per NOTUS's reporting, "consistently ruled against" in litigation over other funding streams, including law-enforcement and disaster-relief grants.