A letter released this morning gives new ammunition to critics who allege New York state officials rigged the process for awarding an $11 billion home health care contract.

Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration announced that it had chosen the company Public Partnerships, LLC (PPL) to take over New York’s state-funded home health care program, which serves hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled New Yorkers. The move followed a last-minute addition to the state budget that required the state to select one company to run the program, replacing the hundreds of independent companies that had been administering it for years.

For years, Susanna Saul has been reassuring some of her clients that it’s safe to apply for public benefits, even if they’re not citizens. Now, she isn’t sure what to say.

Saul directs legal programs at Her Justice, a Manhattan-based nonprofit that provides free legal assistance to impoverished women and their children. Its clients include victims of trafficking and domestic violence who, unlike most undocumented people, are eligible for Medicaid under decades-old federal exceptions.

“They’ve always been worried about the immigration consequences of accessing public benefits, even before Trump won,” she said. “They always ask us if that’s going to hurt their ability to pursue a pathway to legal status. We’ve always said, ‘no.’”

But as President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up immigration enforcement, she has more often found herself having to say, “I can’t answer that question, because I don’t know.”

The New York state prison system has been running on fumes since its corrections officers walked off the job in February. The three-week wildcat strike ended with the prison agency firing some 15 percent of its guards, while other officers resigned or retired early, grinding prison operations to a halt. Despite a thousands-strong National Guard force deployed to assist remaining staff, facilities have canceled or cut back on programming and recreation, stripping incarcerated people of educational and work opportunities and leaving many lingering — and baking — in their cells and dorms for upwards of 20 hours a day.