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"Emily Scott is a Job Corps student in Los Angeles who is also a caretaker for her disabled mother. She is four months away from graduating from the Job Corps program as a licensed nurse. 

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
0shut 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."

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...

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."

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