Federal Judge Puts Freeze on DOL Termination of Job Corps (1)

The Trump administration is temporarily barred from shutting down the Job Corps training program, preventing as many as 25,000 young adult students from being displaced, a federal judge ruled.

Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a temporary restraining order to a coalition of Jobs Corps providers, stopping the US Department of Labor from implementing the elimination of the program. Carter didn’t explain his reasoning, but said that all Job Corps operators and staff are enjoined from cutting the program absent “Congressional authorization.”

That order includes acting on any “stop work orders and termination and non-renewal notices delivered to Job Corps center operators” or working on “any shutdown tasks, job terminations, or student removals.”

The decision is a major win for Job Corps operators and unions who had said the move to close down the program was illegal and would harm the thousands of students that rely on the program for housing and food, in addition to their training.

“We are relieved that these students are secure for the time being, and we strongly urge the Department of Labor to reverse its decision to end the Job Corps program,” Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, president and secretary-treasurer respectively of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department said in a statement.

“Simply put, Job Corps is a lifeline for students who are transforming their own lives by seeking a way out of the hand they’ve been dealt.”

Jobs Corps, which President Donald Trump‘s latest budget request described as a “failed” program, provides job training, housing and stipends to low-income US residents and immigrants authorized to work in the country, in exchange for a high school diploma or equivalent certification.

The ruling came one day after the coalition sued seeking to stop the DOL’s decision to wind down the $1.5 billion program, arguing the effort is illegal and violates mandates set by Congress and the agency’s own regulations, according the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for Southern District of New York.

The DOL notified Job Corps centers May 29 that it was pausing operations at 99 facilities nationwide, giving operators until June 30 to completely close. The Trump administration has said the program needed to end because an internal review into its performance found low graduation rates, high participant costs, and serious safety issues.

Since then, Job Corps operators and staff have been scrambling to find housing and job placements for the 25,000 students currently in the program, including sending some students to homeless shelters or to seek out unemployment benefits.

The case is Nat’l Jobs Corps Assoc. v. Dept. of Labor, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-04641, 6/4/25.