US court rules against Trump administration's Public Charge rule, which critics call 'wealth test' for immigrants
Under the Public Charge rule, immigrants who use public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers for 12 months over a period of three years could be deemed ineligible for legal permanent residency visas, known as green cards.
Critics worried the Public Charge rule would make immigrants fearful of seeking medical treatment during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court concluded that preliminary injunctions issued against the Public Charge rule by two federal courts, the Northern District of California and the Eastern District of Washington, were warranted.
The 9th Circuit's ruling agreed with several states and cities that filed lawsuits that the Public Charge rule would harm them by causing immigrants to withdraw from federal programs and seek public benefits from cities and states.
The appeals court also rejected the Trump administration's claim that the Public Charge rule is aimed at ensuring immigrants are self-sufficient because that is the goal of the programs themselves.
"Addressing DHS’s (the Department of Homeland Security's) contention that the statute’s overall purpose is to promote self-sufficiency, the panel concluded that providing access to better health care, nutrition, and supplemental housing benefits is consistent with precisely that purpose," the ruling said.
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Immigrants who have used public benefits in the past may want to wait until USCIS provides more clarity on how the agency will respond to the latest court ruling, he said, or to see if the new Biden administration moves to rescind the Public Charge rule.
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Since 1999, the rule has required immigrants to prove that they will not become primarily dependent on certain cash welfare programs. The Trump administration's revised Public Charge rule added certain non-cash benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid to the list of public benefits that can lead to immigrants seeking green cards being deemed a public charge, Yale-Loehr said.
The new rule removed the requirement that someone become “primarily dependent” on benefits. Instead, immigration officials can deem someone a public charge if they use any of those benefits for 12 months within the last three years, Yale-Loehr said.