Advocates say new rules let Education Department to politically punish groups working on immigration, transgender care.
Published On 30 Oct 2025
The United States Department of Education has finalised new rules that could bar nonprofits deemed to have undertaken work with a “substantial illegal purpose” from a special student loan forgiveness programme.
Those rules, finalised on Thursday, appear to single out certain organisations that do work in areas that President Donald Trump politically opposes, including immigration advocacy and transgender rights.
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Under the new rules, set to take effect in July 2026, the education secretary has the power to exclude groups if they engage in activities like the “chemical castration” of children, using a politically charged term for gender-affirming healthcare, including puberty-delaying medication.
It also allows the education secretary to bar groups accused of supporting undocumented immigration or “terrorist” organisations.
The Trump administration has said its decisions “will not be made based on the political views or policy preferences of the organization”.
But advocates fear the move is the administration’s latest effort to target left-leaning and liberal organisations.
Trump has already threatened to crack down on several liberal nonprofits, which the White House has broadly accused of being part of “domestic terror networks”.
Thursday’s rules concern the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme, created by an act of Congress in 2007.
In an effort to direct more graduates into public service jobs, the programme promises to cancel federal student loans for government employees and many nonprofit workers after they have made 10 years of payments.
Workers in the public sector, including tea