By Nate Raymond
Sept 14 (Reuters) – Dozens of Democratic-led U.S. states, counties and cities sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday to block a new rule that would allow immigration officials to deny green cards to people who use public benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid.
In two lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court, the states and local governments challenged a federal rule set to take effect on Friday that says people applying to become lawful permanent residents should not be “public charges” who are primarily dependent on government benefits.
The Department of Homeland Security rule was announced in July. It revives a policy adopted in 2019 during the Republican president’s first term in office that was abandoned under Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which in 2022 adopted a narrower definition of who would be a “public charge.”
Asked about the lawsuits, a DHS spokesperson in a statement called the plaintiffs “sanctuary states” and “left-wing leaders” who were “terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs.”
Under U.S. law, immigration officials have long been allowed to deem people inadmissible if they determine they would likely become “public charges” who would primarily depend on the government for support.
Under the Biden-era rule, immigration officials could consider immigrants’ prior or current receipt of Supplemental Security Income and cash assistance but not their receipt of non-cash benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid, the government healthcare program for low-income people.
Those non-cash benefits had been factors under the 2019 rule and may now be considered again under the new policy.
The states argue there are no clear limits on which benefits could count against a green card applicant, leaving families guessing which forms of assistance could jeopardize their immigration status.
“This rule preys on that fear and counts on families forfeiting the food assistance, healthcare coverage and other public benefits to which they are legally entitled,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Her state, along with California and Illinois, is leading a lawsuit by 22 states and the District of Columbia challenging the rule. A second case was filed by six cities and counties including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a statement said the rule “seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades.”
The lawsuits argue that the new rule violates a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act because it exceeds DHS’s statutory authority and departs from the longstanding meaning of the public charge provision established by Congress.
Similar lawsuits led to rulings against the prior rule the first Trump administration had adopted, and the Biden administration dropped the government’s defense of the policy before adopting its own rule.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)
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