New York is among 24 states and the District of Columbia — all led by Democrats — suing the Trump administration for "illegally" freezing nearly $7 billion in education funds affecting after-school care and summer programs for children, teaching English to children who are non-native speakers, and programs to recruit and train teachers in low-income areas, among others.

"This illegal and unjustified funding freeze will be devastating for students and families nationwide, especially for those who rely on these programs for childcare and to learn English," New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement yesterday announcing the lawsuit regarding the freeze imposed by the U.S. Department of Education.

"Congress allocated these funds, and the law requires that they be delivered," James said. "We will not allow this administration to rewrite the rules to punish the communities it doesn't like."

Olivia Winslow reports in NEWSDAY that James said the coalition of attorneys general and governors argues that the funding freeze violates the Constitution and federal law, adding that "the administration offered no reasoned explanation for a drastic policy reversal and failed to consider states' reliance on long-established funding processes."

The money was supposed to be distributed July 1, but then the department announced the freeze.

According to a notice The Associated Press obtained earlier this month, the administration's Education Department said the money would not be released while a review was underway of the programs. “The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities," the AP reported the notice said.

James said more than $463 million in funding for the 2025-2026 school year has been frozen in New York, which she said was 13% of the state's total K-12 education funding.

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A major coalition of labor unions has called for the release and end of deportation proceedings against a Suffolk County Community College honors student who was arrested by immigration agents as part of an escalating nationwide crackdown.

Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that the heads of the Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of unions that represents about 300,000 workers, said yesterday that Sara Lopez Garcia should be released from an immigration jail in Louisiana and returned to Long Island to continue her studies.

"What we know is that Sara Lopez Garcia is a promise. She is a promise of what this country can be when we lift up hardworking students who contribute to our communities and try to make a better life for themselves, in this case through higher education," John Durso and Ryan Stanton, president and executive director of the group, said in a statement.

They noted that Lopez Garcia, 20, a native of Colombia, had protected legal status in the United States through a special immigrant juvenile status visa. The visa is granted to young people who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent.

Lopez Garcia and her mother were arrested on May 21 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to their house in Mastic, long Island. Her 17-year-old brother was allowed to stay because he is a minor.

In a telephone interview with NEWSDAY on Saturday from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, where she has spent the last month, Lopez Garcia said she is grateful for the outpouring of support she has received from the college community and others. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said he is bringing her case to the attention of the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

"I think that that's really important to show people that we are not criminals and I am not a criminal," she said. "They can see my record."

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