States and Cities Sue To Stop Trump’s Immigrant “Wealth Test” Rule Before It Takes Effect
New York is leading a 22-state lawsuit against the Trump administration for unlawfully expanding the “public charge” rules that restrict entry to the United States for immigrants deemed likely to make use of public benefits. A group of municipalities, led by New York City, are separately suing over the same rules. The new regulations, scheduled […]
A 22-state coalition, spearheaded by New York, is contesting the Trump administration's recent attempt to reinstate the "public charge" rule that had previously been struck down in 2022. Additionally, a number of cities, including New York City, have joined this legal battle. The new rule, set to begin on September 18, permits immigration officials to take into account a prospective immigrant's potential requirement for non-monetary public assistance—such as food stamps, Children's Health Insurance Program benefits, and Medicaid—when deciding whether to grant a visa.
A report by the health policy organization KFF this summer projected that between 1.4 million and 4.1 million Medicaid and CHIP enrollees within mixed-status families might lose their coverage due to this regulation. The cities and states challenging the rule change contend that it "reinstates more than a century of precedent and decades of federal guidance, granting officers excessive discretion in making determinations that are inconsistent and discriminatory," according to a press release from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office.
During his first term, President Trump had previously tried to enforce comparable regulations, colloquially dubbed a "wealth test for immigrants." In 2020, several mixed-status families were compelled to choose between receiving green cards and providing for their children's sustenance. The "public charge" rule was sometimes characterized as a strategy to deny green cards to individuals who utilized public benefit programs like food stamps and Medicaid.
However, the reality is that immigrants are seldom eligible for these programs until they receive their green cards. The public charge rule's actual function was to deny green cards to individuals whom immigration officials deemed likely to utilize public benefits once they became eligible for them. This is a resurgence of an 19th-century policy that emerged from a nativist backlash towards Irish and Italian immigrants.
The New York Times commented in 1887 that the public charge rule would deter "monthly consignments of Neapolitan beggars" from Italy. "This latest public charge rule aims to drive immigrant families away from the very programs that have sustained them for generations," Mamdani stated in a statement unveiling the cities' lawsuit.
"That fear will extend beyond the families that the federal government is targeting, and all New Yorkers will suffer the consequences."
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