Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford has co-led a coalition of attorneys general from 20 states in filing an amicus brief supporting the Job Corps program, which provides career training and housing for young Americans from low-income backgrounds. The group is responding to the Trump administration’s move to terminate the program, arguing that such action could leave thousands of vulnerable youths without housing.
“The Job Corps program is a phenomenal and successful tool that has helped millions of young, vulnerable Americans from low-income backgrounds,” said AG Ford. “The president’s attempt to destroy this congressionally funded program simply because he dislikes it is not only cruel, it is illegal. The president does not have the power to decimate this program through an order and is simply playing political games with the futures of some of our most vulnerable Nevadans. I am proud to stand alongside my colleagues in opposing this action.”
The amicus brief states that over its sixty-year history, Job Corps has provided education, training, housing, healthcare, and community support to millions of participants nationwide. The brief warns that ending the program would affect tens of thousands currently enrolled at campuses across all fifty states. For instance, Nevada’s Sierra Nevada Job Corps Center in Reno graduates around 500 vocational students each year; many enrollees were previously unhoused or in foster care and may have no other place to live if the program ends.
The filing asserts that maintaining an injunction against terminating Job Corps is necessary to protect state residents who are at risk and supports state objectives related to education and workforce development. It also argues that the federal government cannot bypass congressional mandates by shutting down programs for political reasons.
The brief was filed in National Job Corps Association et al. v. Department of Labor et al., heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. AG Ford co-led this effort with Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, joined by attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon and Vermont.
