Laravel Auth::check() is always failing

I am building a ReactJS App with a Laravel 8.9.0 backend api. I am using the Laravel Auth functionality that creates a token and passes it to my front end app. I am able to log-in and create a token properly with a hash password etc. What I am not able to do is "Check Login" with the is_login method shown below in the controller. The Auth::check() is always failing, what am I doing wrong? Below are my controllers and routes api.php file. Please help!

Login Controller:

namespace AppHttpControllers;

use AppHttpControllersController;
use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesAuth;
use AppModelsUsers;

class LoginController extends Controller
{
    public function login(Request $request) {

        $login = $request->validate([
            'email' => 'required:string',
            'password' => 'required:string'
        ]);

        if(!Auth::attempt($login)) {
            return response([
                'message' => 'Invalid Credentials'
            ]);
        }

        $accessToken = Auth::user()
                    ->createToken('authToken')
                    ->accessToken;
        
        return response([
           'user' => Auth::user(),
           'access_token' => $accessToken 
        ]);
    }

    public function is_login()
    {
        $is_login = false;
        if (Auth::check()) {
            $is_login = true;
        }
        return response()->json(['is_login' => $is_login]);
    }
}

Routes api.php

use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesRoute;

Route::post('/login', 'AppHttpControllersLoginController@login');
Route::get('/login-check', 'AppHttpControllersLoginController@is_login');