States, Cities, Counties Sue to Block New Green Card Rules

NEW YORK CITY—New York City and several other cities, counties, and states filed two lawsuits on Sept. 14 to stop federal immigration officers from considering applicants’ use of public assistance when applying for a green card.

The cities’ and counties’ lawsuit cites the burden they would face if immigrants were unenrolled from public assistance programs and increased their use of local food banks and emergency services.

“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades. New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference.

He said New York City is not looking to obtain a temporary injunction but to stop the rule entirely.

During its first term, the Trump administration authorized the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to deny green cards or entry to the United States to immigrants who had used welfare programs or to aliens deemed likely to use them.

In 2021, the Biden administration rescinded the Trump-era rule and updated guidance for which welfare programs officials could consider.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded the Biden-era guidance on July 16 through a new rule set to take effect on Sept. 18.

Local officials suing the government argue that the new rules lack clear definitions and guardrails, which they say will prompt a wide swath of immigrants to avoid public assistance programs—even if the rules don’t apply to them. 

“Because the rule is very nuanced and complicated, so people think that it may impact them, which is what the chilling effect is, people think that it may impact them even though it actually does not,” said Rebecca Telzak, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, a community organization that helps connect people with social services.

Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James warned that if millions of people cancel their enrollment in healthcare and food assistance programs, federal funding for those programs will drop and the city will have to bear more of the cost.

“Denying people services does not erase their need, it compounds it,” said Mamdani, pointing out that the need for medical care would simply shift to local emergency services.

James said local governments may lose their free and reduced-price meal programs if Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program enrollment declines, and that such an outcome would cut off meals for all eligible students regardless of income or immigration status.

DHS pushed back, saying that leaders in sanctuary cities are trying to “justify their defrauding of the American taxpayer.”

“Sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs,” a DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The lawsuit argues that the administration has changed the definition of public charge, which previously applied to individuals who depend primarily on public assistance. However, on July 20, the federal government issued new guidance to immigration officers to consider applicant enrollment in any income-based government assistance program when determining whether an applicant is a public charge.

Under 1999 guidance, immigration authorities defined immigrants as public charges if they were primarily dependent on the government due to participation in programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Participation in a number of other programs, including Medicaid and the federal food stamp program, was excluded.

Joining New York City in the suit are the cities of Chicago; San Francisco; Seattle; and Santa Clara, California, as well as San Francisco County, King County (Seattle), and Santa Clara County.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

This is a developing story and will be updated.