Trump restores public-charge rule that can block green cards for benefit users

MIAMI (AP): The Trump White House is reinstating a regulation that may bar permanent residency for foreigners who draw on government assistance such as food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and similar programmes.

The measure, called “public charge”, was listed on Thursday in the Federal Register. Formal publication is set for July 20, with the rule coming into force on September 18. Under it, green-card seekers must prove they will not become a drain on the United States or “public charges”.

Officials first enforced the approach in February 2020 during President Donald Trump’s initial term as part of efforts to tighten legal immigration. Democratic President Joe Biden later scrapped it. Its restoration arrives as Republicans pursue a tough stance on both unlawful and lawful entry, and as medical care and groceries grow more expensive.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated on its X account that the federal government “is reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers”.

“Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves,” the agency wrote.

Although the current crackdown emphasises removals and enforcement in cities, at borders and at ports of entry, officials have also moved against people with legal status and mixed-status households — foreign-born parents raising children born in the United States.

The rule expands disqualification options

Existing statute already obliges anyone applying for permanent residence or other legal standing to show they will not become a public charge. The Trump regulation, however, widens the circumstances that can trigger a refusal.

The text does not name the specific benefits or schemes that would count. Instead it directs officers to reach “individualized, fact-specific public charge inadmissible determinations, based on a totality of the alien’s circumstances”.

It adds that, “using good judgment and discretion, officers will more accurately assess an alien’s likelihood at any time of becoming a public charge”.

The administration originally floated the idea in 2018 to favour newcomers able to stand on their own. Immigrant-rights groups attacked it as a “wealth test”. Public-health specialists warned of poorer health results.

Manatt Health, which advises state and federal agencies, projected that as many as 26 million people might avoid medical care, food help, housing support or other aid they were legally eligible for. Roughly half were US citizens, chiefly youngsters or adults in mixed-status families, the organisation said.

Observers also pointed out that most recipients of government assistance already hold legal residency.

A 2020 Migration Policy Institute analysis found that although “chilling effects” could be widespread, relatively few migrants would actually lose eligibility for permanent residence solely because they used a listed benefit under the rule.

The institute put the figure at no more than 167,000 people — under 1% of the 22.1 million non-citizens then living in the United States.

Census Bureau figures show 22.8 million non-citizens resided in the US in 2023.

Critics say the rule creates fear in the community

Civil-society groups reported that the earlier policy sowed confusion and anxiety, prompting many immigrants and their US-born kin to forgo benefits and services they were entitled to claim.

Immigrant advocates denounced the decision to revive the “public charge” rule and voiced alarm.

“This regulation is a direct assault on immigrant families, and a threat to our country’s health and economic security,” said Adriana Cadena, executive director at the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition. “The Trump administration is basing immigration decisions on bias and politics, regardless of the resulting harm.”

Sarah Krieger, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, argued the rule would deter immigrants from seeing doctors, shopping for groceries and submitting tax returns.

“With this new rule, they are sowing fear and chaos to ultimately reshape America into a country where only the few who are white and ultra-wealthy are welcome,” Krieger said. “The rule is not just deeply harmful, it also violates the law.”