NEW YORK — Attorney General Letitia James warned that President Donald Trump is putting the most vulnerable New Yorkers at risk as she and four other attorneys general head to court in a bid to reverse the administration’s withholding $10 billion in funding for child care and other social services programs.

The funding freeze, which impacts more than $3 billion in federal dollars across New York state, could jeopardize key anti-poverty programs, cut low-income parents off from care for their children, and force daycares to shutter, the attorneys general warned — just as Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani look to expand universal child care.

“This administration is now threatening to cut off child care and other critical programs that parents depend on to provide for their children,” James said in a statement. “As New Yorkers struggle with the rising cost of living, I will not allow this administration to play political games with the resources families need to help make ends meet.”

The Trump administration has said the pause came in response to concerns about fraud in the child care system that require further review, including benefits being provided to non-American citizens.

“It’s unfortunate that these Attorney Generals from these Democrat-led states are less focused on reducing fraud and more focused on partisan political stunts,” Mike Stuart, general counsel at the Health Department, said on X. “HHS stands by its decision to take this action to defend American taxpayers. We identified serious concerns in these states that warranted immediate review and action.”

In a press release on Thursday night, James said the administration has not provided evidence of fraud or misuse of child care funding in New York, while ignoring the standard processes for withholding such funds.

She and the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota are seeking a court order in Manhattan ruling the funding freeze illegal and directing federal officials to resume the regular flow of funds.

New York will run out of funds for temporary assistance for low-income by the end of the month, unless the suspension in aid is reversed, a rep for the governor’s office said earlier this week.

The state is also looking to expand access to child care vouchers for low-income families, Hochul announced Thursday alongside Mamdani as part of a broader plan to achieve universal child care. That effort could be derailed if the attorneys general cannot secure a court injunction, and the new state funding must be reallocated to backfill federal funding gaps.

In the complaint, the attorneys general say the states have been asked to turn over a trove of documents related to their use of billions of dollars of federal funding — a request they characterized as “an impossible task on an impossible timeline.”

“This request reveals the fundamental problem with defendants’ position: they did not engage in any meaningful investigation before taking the draconian step of withholding all funding under the programs and only now seek to find any evidence of noncompliance,” the attorneys general wrote.

“In other words: the [Trump administration’s] data demand is a fishing expedition to find a post hoc rationalization for the freeze itself.”

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