Donald Trump’s administration is freezing more than $10bn in federal childcare and family assistance funds to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said, citing what it called concerns about fraud and misuse.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” Andrew Nixon, HHS spokesperson, said in a statement.

The Trump administration has threatened federal funding cuts to organizations and states over a number of issues since taking office – ranging from alleged fraud in programs of states governed by Democrats to diversity initiatives and pro-Palestinian university protests against US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza.

On Tuesday, HHS said it notified the five states, all with Democratic governors, that its freeze applied to the “Child Care and Development Fund” worth $2.4bn, the “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families” worth $7.35bn and the “Social Services Block Grant” worth $869m.

In a statement, the department said the states’ access to those funds would be restricted pending further review. The administration has not laid out details of either the fraud claims or the widening plan to withhold funds, which was first reported by the New York Post.

Democrats condemned the freeze. “Our states should not be political pawns in a fight that Donald Trump seems to have with blue state governors,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said, adding the step was “vindictive” and “cruel”.

Trump himself has not spoken on the specifics, but he proclaimed on social media Tuesday: “The Fraud Investigation of California has begun.”

In the fallout, HHS officials said no state will receive childcare funds without providing more verification. Several states told the Associated Press that they had not received any guidance on that decision.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for California governor Gavin Newsom, said in an email that “Donald Trump is a deranged, habitual liar whose relationship with reality ended years ago” and defended California’s record at stamping out fraud in government programs.

The senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said Trump’s move to halt funding aims to score political points, not to stop fraud.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has singled out Minnesota, alleging rampant fraud is being committed by immigrants in the welfare system and in social service programs.

Trump administration officials have frequently and sharply attacked the state’s Somali community, the largest in the country, as well as the Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, and the Democratic representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali American who represents a Minneapolis-based district in Congress.

Federal childcare funding has been put on hold in Minnesota since late last month amid investigations into a series of alleged fraud schemes at daycare centers run by people with family roots in Somalia.

Rights advocates say the Trump administration is using the fraud investigations as an excuse to target immigrants and political opponents more broadly.