Trump administration seeks to bring back public charge rule : NPR

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wants to expand a Biden-era policy known as public charge this may further limit immigrants' use of public goods.

This means that migrants' use of safety-net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicare may be considered when determining whether they should be granted additional legal status, such as a green card.

Department of Homeland Security officials release new proposed regulation this week it will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday. It would repeal the Biden-era version of the public benefit rule and expand the scope of what public benefits can be considered by immigration officers to any social or health care services that people might use.

“Repealing the law would restore greater discretion to evaluate all relevant facts and is consistent with the long-standing policy that aliens in the United States should be self-sufficient and that government benefits should not encourage immigration,” the proposal said.

Advocates were quick to criticize the proposal, saying its new broad scope was too vague and could disincentivize immigrants who need and are eligible to use the benefits.

“This dangerous proposal threatens the health and economic well-being of the nation,” said Adriana Cadenas, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Immigrant Families. “By creating chaos and confusion, it deters lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens from seeking the health care and assistance they need and are entitled to under federal law.”

Social protection program policies

The proposed DHS regulation comes as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans make false statements rampant fraud in immigrants' use of social security programs.

People without legal status do not have access to CLICKhealthcare market, Medicaid and other public goods.

However, Congress recently applied additional restrictions denying health insurance and access to SNAP to certain lawfully present immigrants, including refugees, asylum seekers, and persons receiving other humanitarian protections. He also cut funding to states, which use their own funds to provide health care regardless of citizenship status.

The new rule proposed this week takes a broad approach that would also consider government-funded benefits when considering immigrant applications.

Children of US citizens and non-citizens remain eligible for these programs.

Targeted benefits of the decree

In February Trump issued an executive order end “all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens“

Trump's order is part of the administration's broader political message about Democrats and immigration. This happened despite the lack of data to support this idea.

Only about 1% of SNAP overpayments or underpayments were related to the right to citizenship. The data also does not indicate that individuals without legal status were fraudulently using the program.

Trump in his first term had expanded the range of benefits this may be considered a “public charge” on someone's immigration record and therefore make it more difficult to obtain permanent status.

Public health providers said at the time the ruling created cooling effect that immigrants are afraid to seek benefits that they may have access to. The effect intensified during COVID-19 pandemicwhen advocates said immigrants were afraid to seek health resources, such as getting medical care or using a food bank, for fear of being seen as a public liability for doing so.

In 2022, the Biden administration introduced a new rule covering immigrants and benefits that was similar to the ruling before Trump overhauled it in 2019. This meant that the use of benefits such as SNAP, housing assistance or transportation vouchers would not count toward green card applicants.