Thousands of students in limbo as Trump administration seeks to shut down Job Corps centers
Andrea Watts of Las Vegas was homeless before finding her way to a Job Corps center in L.A. for an opportunity to obtain her high school diploma and eventually become a pharmacy technician.
Both are students who are undergoing training at Job Corps, but whose careers are in limbo as the centers were abruptly shut down last week.
On May 29, the Labor Department announced a "phased pause" in operations at 99 contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide.
These are federally-funded centers that offer career training, housing and career assistance to more than 25,000 young people ages 16 to 24. The Labor Department program was funded by Congress in 1964 and has generally received bipartisan support.
However, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a news release that the program was "no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve" as evidenced by "a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis."
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Wednesday, U.S District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan temporarily blocked the Trump administration from eliminating the Job Corps program while the case plays out.
The temporary restraining order was issued after Job Corps contractors sued the Trump administration Tuesday arguing the Labor Department violated federal law by shutting down the Job Corps centers, arguing the White House does not have the power to dismantle a program established and funded by Congress.
A hearing is set for June 17. CBS News has reached out to the Labor Department and Job Corps for comment on the ruling.
Job Corps officials told CBS News that even before the Labor Department paused operations last week, it had halted their ability to conduct background checks, effectively freezing the enrollment process. Though it was initially communicated as a pause, staff had been given dates for their last date of employment, they said.
Prior to Carter's ruling, a stop in operations at all contractor-operated Job Corps centers was slated to occur by June 30.
A transparency report released in April by the Labor Department found that the average graduation rate for the program was under 40%. The yearly average cost per student was $80,000 and there were over 14,000 serious incident infractions, including inappropriate sexual behavior, sexual assaults and reported drug use.
The decision to pause operations aligned with President Trump's 2026 budget proposal, according to the Labor Department, and the administration's commitment to "ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers," the agency said last week when it announced the pause.
According to Michelle Matthews, who helps lead the L.A. Job Corps centers, the Labor Department's findings were "unbelievable" given that students are under strict rules and are drug tested in order to qualify.
"All of the numbers presented were inflated, deflated lies and their intent was clear from the start," said Matthews, adding that news of the centers' closure was communicated to students last Friday.
"That was a day I will never forget," Matthews told CBS News in tears. "To see what they were going through and to know that the impact was going to be devastating."
Students were required to abandon their dorms, but more than 50 students in the L.A. centers had nowhere to go. Matthews says she is part of the staff still working around the clock to find them housing.
It was not immediately clear whether Wednesday's ruling will allow it to immediately reopen to students.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have denounced the Trump administration's move to suspend Job Corps operations, a move they say is illegal.
"We funded the program through fiscal year 2025 and they are cutting these slots and shutting things down that Congress has already funded," said Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California in a phone interview with CBS News. "The money is already there, so they should use it to help these kids finish out their degrees and certifications and then we can have a debate on what the future of Job Corps looks like."
Gomez added that he has personally witnessed the success of the program as his two siblings are Job Corps graduates.
"The kids are in the pipeline, don't take this away from them because they don't have many opportunities as it is," Gomez said.
In May, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to Chavez-DeRemer requesting information on Job Corps contracts, background check processing and evaluation plans.
"I strongly oppose the Department of Labor's directive to pause operations at Job Corps centers in Maine and across the country," Collins said in a statement. "Serving nearly 500 students in Maine, the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults."
Scott, who has autism, was forced to drop out of college at the age of 19 to care for her disabled mother.
"I watched my whole life get put on pause and our circumstances never improved," Scott said.
The nursing student says she's unable to pay for her training on her own if Job Corps is effectively shut down.
"My future, I don't see it, I don't see anything being different than how I started," Scott said.
For Watts, leaving Job Corps would mean returning to Las Vegas — where she doesn't have a home — without achieving her initial hopes of becoming a pharmacy technician.
"I wanted to set an example for my future self, and I enrolled into Job Corps thinking that I would come out with a career, with my high school diploma," Watts said. "But that was all just taken from me in a short amount of time."
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