Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump Administration’s child care funding freeze

(NBC, KYMA) - A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from freezing $10 billion in social services funding five Democratic-led states Friday.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York because it had "reason to believe" the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally.

However, the agency did not provide any evidence of this.

The states called the move unconstitutional, adding the funding freeze is creating "operational chaos."

While U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian did not rule on the legality of the funding freeze, he said the five states had met a legal threshold "to protect the status quo" for at least 14 days while arguments are made in court.