The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to rule on the constitutionality of one of former President Donald Trump’s most important immigration policies, the public charge rule, which bars aliens deemed likely to require taxpayer benefits from obtaining legal permanent residency.
President Joe Biden had promised during his campaign to abandon the common sense rule and is widely expected to follow through on that deal.
The Court agreed to take up the appeal that the Trump administration had “filed over a lower court ruling that found the rule likely violated federal immigration and administrative law by impermissibly expanding the definition of who counts as a “public charge” and greatly increasing the number of people who would be rejected for residency” reports Reuters.
The crux of the previous case revolved around exactly which aliens would be eligible for Legal Permanent Resident status (green card), U.S. immigration law has upheld the long precedent of requiring officials to exclude people likely to become a “public charge” from permanent residency.
For the past twenty years, the public charge rule had applied to aliens likely to become dependent on direct cash assistance or long-term care like institutions and nursing homes.
President Trump expanded the rule to include aliens who would be dependent on Medicaid, housing, and food stamps, also adding a time frame barring aliens receiving taxpayer-funded benefits an aggregate of 12 months over a 36-month period.
Reuters concludes:
The challengers in the New York case were three states - New York, Connecticut, and Vermont - and a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups. A federal judge blocked the rule in 2019 for likely violations of federal law, and last June the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
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Then 7th Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is now a justice on the Supreme Court-appointed by Trump, dissented from that decision, finding that the government’s rule was a reasonable interpretation of the public charge law.
For the complete article, please visit Reuters.
