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By CLASP and the National Women’s Law Center

530A accounts, also known as Trump Accounts, were established last summer through the budget reconciliation law, H.R. 1. Beginning on July 4, 2026, families and loved ones can open 530A accounts on behalf of their children. The federal government will seed eligible accounts with one-time $1,000 contributions for babies born between 2025 and 2028. Families, loved ones, employers, and philanthropic donors can make additional contributions to the accounts, up to a total of $5,000 a year. These accounts will act as tax-advantaged savings accounts that grow over time. When children turns 18, they can use the account balance for certain wealth-building activities, like higher education, or let the account balance continue growing.

But 530A accounts don’t adequately target investments to the families who need them most. Instead, these accounts will allow the rich to get richer, while low- and middle-income families will see more limited gains. Our nation needs effective policies to help close the extreme racial and gender wealth gap, but 530A accounts are not the best approach. This FAQ answers common questions about how 530A accounts will operate for families.

Download the FAQ here.

This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C., July 2, 2026–July 4th will mark one year since Congress passed and Donald Trump signed into law the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025. Also known as H.R.1, the bill included the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in the programs’ histories and prioritized funding to separate immigrant families and give tax breaks to the wealthy. As families continue to deal with the rising costs of living, they are now also left without health care and food assistance. 

H.R.1 slashed nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act Marketplace tax credits. More than 1 million people have dropped Marketplace coverage and more than 10 million are projected to lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade. The bill’s impact on food assistance is already being felt, as SNAP participation has declined in every state since H.R.1 became law. Based on the latest available data, SNAP participation has fallen by more than 4 million people, or roughly 10 percent; and in the 12 states with available child-level data, more than 700,000 children have lost SNAP food assistance–all because the majority in Congress and the administration prioritized billionaires over families. We expect these harms to grow as states fully implement new eligibility restrictions and other measures in response to future state cost-sharing requirements.

These numbers do not reflect a decline in hunger or reduction in poverty. They represent millions of families who continue to struggle with medical bills, rising food costs, and economic hardship but are now being pushed out of the very programs designed to help them. And people who are technically eligible to keep Medicaid or food assistance will face significant new paperwork barriers, including more frequent Medicaid renewals that will make it harder to access the benefits they qualify for. 

H.R.1 provided $170.7 billion in additional funding for immigration enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and carved out lawfully present immigrants from basic needs programs. This historic ballooning of immigration enforcement funding has turbocharged family separations and child and family detention, threatening child safety and well-being. An estimated 205,000 children,145,000 of whom are U.S. citizens, have experienced having a parent in detention. To make matters worse, these U.S. citizen children are also likely among those who are now losing access to the Child Tax Credit, at a time when they and their families are in most need of support. These changes will increase child poverty; and, building on the exclusions from the 2017 tax reforms that excluded eligibility for children without a Social Security number, affect nearly 4 million children. Moreover, the high level of disenrollment in SNAP and Medicaid is in part due to H.R.1’s exclusion of lawfully present immigrants, such as asylum seekers and refugees, as well as the chilling effect on people whose children are likely eligible but are disenrolling because they are concerned about their participation being used against them in immigration proceedings. 

The DHS funding granted through H.R.1 is enabling immigration actions that are actively endangering our nation’s children. At least 79 children have been tear gassed or pepper sprayed and over 6,200 children have seen the inside of an immigration detention camp, where they experienced disruptions to their education, poor nutrition, and delayed medical care. The fear and uncertainty is affecting not only the children directly impacted by these policies, but also their classmates, teachers, and neighbors. The harms of H.R.1 will reverberate for generations.

Policymakers should invest in policies that support family unity and actually center community well-being, such as community-led food systems that keep families fed, regardless of political shifts. Congress must  rescind the harm caused by H.R.1 and restore access to health coverage, food assistance, and economic supports. Repairing this harm will require that Congress moves away from policies rooted in suspicion, punishment, and unsupported fraud narratives and instead advance policies grounded in evidence, dignity, and the realities families face. 

This statement can be attributed to Wendy Cervantes, director of the Immigration and Immigrant Families team at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).

Washington, D.C., June 30, 2026 – Today’s Supreme Court decision preserves a fundamental constitutional protection that has safeguarded children born in the United States for more than a century. By striking down Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, the Court has protected the longstanding principle that children born in this country are entitled to the rights and protections of U.S. citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Birthright citizenship is rooted in the simple principle that every child born in the United States deserves the opportunity to grow and thrive. For generations, the Fourteenth Amendment has ensured that children are not denied citizenship because of their race, ancestry, or the immigration status of their parents. Birthright citizenship has helped ensure that children begin life on equal footing, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Today’s decision preserves that understanding and protects children from being treated differently from the moment they are born.

The stakes in this case were profound. Had birthright citizenship been narrowed, hundreds of thousands of babies born in the United States each year could have faced uncertainty about their citizenship status because of their parents’ immigration status. Children could have been denied the rights, protections, and opportunities that citizenship provides from birth, while any family welcoming a newborn could have faced new bureaucratic burdens as they attempted to prove their child’s citizenship and navigate a confusing and uncertain system. Today’s ruling preserves important protections for children, families, and communities.

Research consistently shows that children thrive when they have the security, stability, and opportunities that citizenship provides. Preserving birthright citizenship helps ensure that children have access to the rights and protections they need to reach their full potential. It also strengthens families and communities across the country.

CLASP will continue working alongside advocates, service providers, researchers, and impacted families to defend the rights of all children and advance policies that promote their well-being. While today’s ruling preserves an important constitutional protection, work remains to ensure that all children and families have the support and opportunities they need to thrive. Every child belongs here and deserves the rights and protections afforded to them from birth, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

>>Read our comment here

By Mikayla Slaydon

The Trump Administration has attacked immigrant and mixed-status families’ access to child care and early education and other public benefits programs since his first term. The first year of the second Trump Administration has put immigrants and their families at the center of heightened and intense immigration enforcement activities and attacks on program eligibility. As a result of the confusion and fear caused by these attacks, CLASP has updated its 2017 resource on eligibility for federally funded child care and early education programs such as Head Start and the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). This updated resource is more essential than ever, as children disappear from classrooms and early education programs and all families, especially immigrant families, too often encounter mountains of red tape just to access important benefits like child care.

This administration has worked extensively to undermine child care and early education programs and dismantle access for children and families, including citizen children in mixed-status families and citizen children who are legally eligible for programs. These attacks include but are not limited to:

• Attempting to reverse the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act guidance outlining Head Start and Early Head Start as education programs and thus allowing any child, regardless of their or their family’s immigration status, to access and benefit from these programs.
• Limiting the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) terms that Head Start programs could use; and restricting the use of federal funding for any training and technical assistance that supported DEI initiatives.
• Swiftly and punitively freezing funding due to alleged “fraud” in Minnesota and other states earlier this year.
• Proposing to change how programs assess eligibility, with more
• Attempting to limit accessibility for Head Start and the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), including the newly proposed Head Start rule and the newly released final rule for CCDF.

The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the administration in court over DEI attacks, mass office closures and layoffs, and eligibility for immigrant children in Head Start, and was granted preliminary that halt the implementation of these efforts.

Despite blatant attempts to destabilize an already fragile child care sector, CLASP will continue to emphasize how necessary accessibility for programs that support basic needs are for the one in four children who live in immigrant households in this country. When immigrant families and children are facing attacks from every angle, highlighting true facts about program eligibility and resources available to immigrant families is essential.

For an updated analysis on program eligibility for immigrant families and children, please see CLASP’s resource here.

CLASP’s safe spaces guide empowers early childhood programs to create a safe spaces policy to protect families’ safety and privacy and safeguard against immigration enforcement activities.

By Hannah Matthews, April 2017

Updated June 2026 by Mikayla Slaydon 

One in four children under age six has at least one foreign-born parent, and 94 percent of these children are U.S. citizens., While most of these children have parents with some form of lawful status, many live with at least one undocumented parent or household member. Consequently, families may be hesitant to access public benefits and programs for which they are legally eligible out of fear or confusion regarding eligibility rules. The federal government establishes immigrant eligibility policies for federal programs. This fact sheet details immigrant eligibility for early childhood programs, specifically child care subsidies and Head Start, as they exist under current federal law and guidance.

Read the fact sheet here.

Although there are ongoing threats to eligibility for some of the programs discussed in this fact sheet, the purpose of this piece is to provide the current status of eligibility for all programs. For more context on current eligibility threats, please visit “Understanding Immigrant Eligibility for Child Care and Early Education Programs.”

CLASP, the Center for American Progress, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Association for the Education of Young Children submitted a sign-on letter opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) proposed Head Start rule titled, “Restoring Flexibility to Support Head Start Program Access.” The letter was signed by 120 national, state, and local organizations urging HHS to rescind the proposed rule and defend the current regulations that would increase Head Start workforce compensation and benefits to reflect the value of their essential work.

>>Read Our Comment Here

This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).   

Washington, D.C., June 10, 2026 – CLASP denounces the passage of a budget reconciliation bill that will cause immeasurable harm to families across the country. Congress’ decision to pass legislation giving an additional $70 billion to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on top of the billions they already received last summer, flies in the face of the policies people need to thrive. Families are struggling to make ends meet as a direct result of policy choices by Congress and the Trump Administration. One of those decisions, the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025, gutted food assistance and health care and has contributed to over three million people no longer receiving SNAP and a 20 percent enrollment decrease in ACA health care coverage.  

Adding billions more to ICE and CBP’s budgets harms children and communities and does not increase safety. It is an irresponsible use of resources consistent with the administration’s terror campaign against immigrants, families, and cities. Since January 20, 2025, ICE and CBP have perpetrated egregious sexual violence against vulnerable communities, militarized communities, and violated their own policies around safeguarding the well-being of children. This has resulted in an estimated 145,000 children in the U.S. experiencing a parent getting detained in immigration facility; at least 79 children harmed by tear gas or pepper spray; and over 6,200 kids placed in immigrant detention camps. CLASP’s reports, which cover findings from conversations with early care and education providers and parents of young children in seven states, make it clear how immigration enforcement is traumatizing children, burdening child care and early education providers, and creating social, emotional, and economic shockwaves in communities throughout the United States. This funding will only continue to separate families and traumatize all children and their communities, regardless of their immigration status.  

Funding for immigration practices that separate families and harm children is not what people want or need, now or ever. CLASP will continue to work toward a country where children have the opportunities to thrive with their loving caregivers and a government that invests in what families and communities need instead of tearing them apart. 

In this episode of the Defense of Democracy podcast, host Addison K. Witt speaks with Suma Setty and Kaelin Rapport of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) about immigration policy, family separation, and the impact current enforcement practices are having on children, caregivers, and communities across the United States.

This event has already happened. Please see the full recording, learn more about the speakers, and find a list of resources below.

On June 25, 2026, the latest installment of CLASP’s Equity Matters series focused on how racism shapes fraud narratives of public benefits programs in the current public discourse. Our panel highlighted the history of racism in public benefits program administration, the ways that fraud narratives harm recipients, how policies have either exacerbated or refuted these narratives, and how advocates and lawmakers can support both public benefits recipients and administrators.

Watch the full recording below:

Speakers:

Framing

• Wendy Chun-Hoon, Executive Director, CLASP
• Jesse Fairbanks, Policy Analyst, Public Benefits Justice
• Teon Hayes, Senior Policy Analyst, Public Benefits Justice

Discussion

• Adriana Cadena, Executive Director, Protecting Immigrant Families Campaign
• Christina Hasaan, Community Engagement Consultant and Alumnus, CLASP Community Partnership Group
• Ifeoma Ike, Founder and Chief Equity Weaver, Pink Cornrows
• Jamila Michener, PhD, Associate Professor, Director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures—Cornell University
• Parker Gilkesson Davis, Senior Policy Analyst, CLASP (moderator)

Resources from the Event

Download Social Media Toolkit	Download Zine and Instructions
Download Slides	Download the Q/A Discussion
Download Fact Sheet	➔ Subscribe for more Equity Matters Updates!

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Report A Community-Driven Anti-Racist Vision for SNAP This report offers recommendations for changes to the SNAP program that move it in an anti-racist direction. This includes examining issues around sufficiency; availability; trauma; trust; respect; promotion of opportunity; and the perspectives of participants.

Testimony CLASP Testimony on the Racialized History of Fraud in SNAP Parker Gilkesson Davis, senior policy analyst on the public benefits justice team, shares her experience as a North Carolina caseworker around a paper she published analyzing the racialized history of fraud in SNAP.

Report SNAP “Program Integrity:” How Racialized Fraud Provisions Criminalize Hunger CLASP takes on the racialized history behind SNAP fraud, details the significant damage caused by efforts to “rein in” this perceived problem, and offers policy recommendations for reversing the harm.

Fact Sheet Five Ways State Agencies Can Support EBT Users at Risk of ‘Skimming’ Skimming is a crime that’s inconvenient and frustrating, regardless of who falls victim to it. But it is even more detrimental for people receiving SNAP and TANF who are living in poverty.

Know Your Rights Know Your Rights about “Intentional Program Violations” If you’ve been accused of “fraud” in the SNAP program, this “Know Your Rights” factsheet may be helpful.

Report Lifting Administrative Burdens to Advance Health and Racial Equity This paper from CLASP and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) details the racist roots of administrative burdens in Medicaid, describes how these burdens continue to harm eligible people – particularly people of color – and provides specific recommendations for states to reduce administrative burden as a key strategy for advancing racial equity in Medicaid.