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Four Democratic-led states that have become frequent targets of President Donald Trump sued Wednesday to try to block his administration from cutting off hundreds of millions in public health grants. The Department of Health and Human Services told Congress on Monday that it planned to withhold about $600 million in grant funding allocated to the four states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Their attorneys general argue the cuts are backlash for the states’ opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown. (Schoenbaum, 2/12)

The Trump administration is reframing the steep Medicaid cuts in Republicans’ tax bill to pit states with large urban centers against those with large rural populations. (Wilkerson, 2/11)

Tony Lyons, a top ally of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and principle architect of his Make America Healthy Again coalition, has a message for Republicans ahead of the midterms: Don’t take Kennedy’s followers for granted. In a new memo obtained by POLITICO, Lyons described the Republican Party as “renting MAHA voters” but not fully committed to “purchase.” (Haslett, 2/11)

When Kulindu Vithanachchi’s phone lit up with an update from the National Science Foundation about his application for a high-profile early-career fellowship, he couldn’t wait to open the message, hopeful for big news. But not this news. (Wosen, 2/11)

On the immigration crisis —

Large swaths of the Department of Homeland Security are set to shut down Saturday unless lawmakers strike a last-minute deal to fund the agency, with Democrats threatening to oppose any legislation that does not include new restrictions on federal immigration agents. (Meyer and Beggin, 2/12)

The Trump administration is sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors apprehended by immigration enforcement to a single group shelter in South Texas. The decision was made over urgent objections from the administration’s own health and child welfare officials, who say both the facility and the region lack the specialized care the girls need. (Betancourt, 2/11)

A New Jersey woman who was detained by federal immigration agents nearly a year ago suffered a seizure after she fell and hit her head in a Texas detention center, her lawyers and federal officials said on Wednesday. The woman, Leqaa Kordia, who has been held at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, since March 2025, was brought to a hospital last Friday and remained there for 72 hours before being taken back to the detention center, said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, Ms. Kordia’s immigration lawyer. (Cramer, 2/12)

In January, the state’s flagship safety net hospital, Denver Health, distributed a one-page notice about patient privacy that carried ground-shaking implications, especially for Colorado’s immigrant population. The notice stated that due to federal changes within Medicaid, the federal-state program for millions of low-income and disabled Americans, “limited” personal information could be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Birkeland and Daley, 2/11)

Federal agents have fired so much tear gas near Mindy King’s apartment in Portland, Ore., that she and her 13-year-old son bought gas masks to wear inside. Her neighbor, Diane Moreno, has gone to urgent care, twice, with tightness in her chest, and bloody discharge from her nose. The problem, they say, is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office less than 100 feet away from their homes. For months, ICE agents have sporadically used tear gas against protesters outside the facility. The repeated use of the chemicals, Ms. King and others fear, poses a serious threat to their health. (Tabuchi, 2/11)

A bill that would make several changes to public assistance programs advanced through an Iowa House subcommittee Wednesday over the objections of people who said it would result in more babies going hungry. (Sostaric, 2/11)