CALLICOON – Following a Tuesday motion by the National Job Corps Association, a U.S. judge issued a temporary restraining order which will temporarily block the Trump administration from moving ahead to eliminate Job Corps.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order on Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by a trade group representing contractors that operate 99 of the 121 Job Corps centers nationwide. 

Carter ordered the government not to terminate Job Corps contractors or stop work at Job Corps centers until a further ruling in the case, and he ordered the Labor Department to appear at a court hearing on June 17.

Officials at the Delaware Valley Job Corps in Callicoon – one of the 99 campuses nationwide affected by the ruling – are now continuing normal operations until the court says otherwise.

A local official said, “In the interim we are no longer separating students and are in the process of returning students to the center that separated during the past week.”

The Delaware Valley Job Corps is operated by Adams & Associates, one of the larger contractors in the country.

Delaware Valley, which started operating in 1979, currently has 101 employees and 127 students enrolled.

“For generations, Job Corps has provided life-changing education and hands-on training to young people looking for a pathway to a better future,” said Donna Hay, President and CEO of the National Job Corps Association (NJCA). “These students are often overcoming significant personal and economic challenges and Job Corps gives them the ability to gain the skills they need to build meaningful careers.”

“Closing Job Corps campuses would not only jeopardize the lives and futures of tens of thousands of students currently in training, but it would also eliminate a workforce pipeline that many industries depend on, needlessly weakening our labor market and economy,” added Marty Walsh, who served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Labor.

The NJCA, according to its website, is also calling on the Administration to reconsider the decisions to eliminate the program based on this flawed report and for Congress to step in to safeguard the future of Job Corps. As a program with longstanding bipartisan support, Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed alarm at the closing of the campuses and abrupt transition of more than twenty thousand students, thousands of whom were homeless or in foster care prior to Job Corps.