The state of Minnesota sued US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday to prevent it from withholding $243 million in Medicaid funding, warning it may have to cut health care for low-income families if the funding is held back.

The state seeks a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from withholding Medicaid funding—the health care safety net for low-income Americans.

On January 6, the administration announced that more than $2 billion annually would be withheld from Minnesota based on assertions of “noncompliance.” Administration officials said they would halt Medicaid funding over alleged fraud concerns, describing it as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.

Plaintiffs called the accusations improperly vague. To date, state officials claim that that have not been made aware of the specifics of its non-compliance or the steps they can take to remedy the administration’s concerns. The lawsuit alleges that the administration, impatient because it could not withhold the $2 billion until Minnesota received due process, “deferred” $243 million from the state on February 25.

“Deferral is an auditing tool that is employed to question ‘a claim or a portion of a claim’ for which there is a lack of supporting documentation showing that payment to a Medicaid provider is warranted,” the lawsuit explains. Plaintiffs continue:

Deferral has never been used to categorically deny funds to a state across entire service areas, as is being done here. By immediately denying Minnesota substantial Medicaid dollars for the very Medicaid services for which it is challenging the federal government’s January 6 claim of “noncompliance,” the deferral effectively denies Minnesota the due process it is entitled to prove that no withholding is warranted.

The withdrawal potentially affects almost 1.2 million Minnesotans who cannot afford health insurance without the funding and services they receive from Medicaid.

Minnesota is among states that opt into Medicaid. In return, they must comply with federal statutes and rules of the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is responsible for implementing the Medicaid program. CMS published its reasoning for withholding funds last month, explaining:

Minnesota’s policies, practices, and oversight mechanisms violate section 1902(a)(64) of the [Social Security] Act, which requires states to ensure their state plans provide mechanisms to receive reports of alleged FWA and to compile and analyze related data… Minnesota’s policies, practices, and oversight mechanisms violate federal regulations at 42 CFR part 455, subpart A, which require states to implement methods for identifying, investigating, and referring suspected Medicaid fraud, including pathways to receive complaints from any source and methods for identifying questionable practices.

However, plaintiffs claimed that despite these stated concerns, the agency has given no guidance or feedback to the state. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison claimed that the administration’s actions are driven by arbitrary animus, rather than valid concerns, stating:

These cuts are the latest in a long series of efforts to go around the law to punish Minnesotans — but just as we fought back and won when they illegally tried to cut funding for childcare, hungry families, and our schools, we are suing them again today to make them follow the law.

DHS appealed the January 6 noncompliance notice on January 9. Timelines for the case remain unclear.