AG Tong Helps Restore Injunction Of Trump Public Charge Rule

Press release from the AG's Office:

March 16, 2021

Attorney General William Tong — as part of a coalition that included the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, as well as the corporation counsel for New York City — helped to restore an injunction against the continued implementation of the Public Charge Rule that had been issued by the Trump Administration. The Public Charge Rule denied green cards and visas to immigrants that use or have used certain government assistance programs. The Biden-Harris Administration’s U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday agreed with the coalition to dismiss the DOJ’s pending appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. That dismissal effectively lifted a previous stay that the Supreme Court had issued and restored a preliminary injunction against the Public Charge Rule that the coalition had successfully obtained in October 2019 and defended on appeal in August 2020.

“This is a major win for public health. The Public Charge Rule was a cruel scheme intended to scare immigrant families away from seeking lifesaving assistance— including health care, housing, and food assistance— in the midst of a global pandemic. The Biden-Harris Administration was right to drop this harmful appeal and relieve Connecticut families of this needless hardship,” said Attorney General Tong.

Federal law allows lawful immigrants to apply for certain supplemental health and nutritional public benefits if they have been in the country for at least five years. But, in August 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a Public Charge Rule that changed the established meaning of public charge, which had long been that immigrants who use certain supplemental benefits are not considered public charges because they are not primarily dependent on the government for survival. This “bait-and-switch” consequently jeopardized immigrants’ chances of becoming legal permanent residents or renewing their visas if they used the supplemental benefits to which they are legally entitled.

In August 2019, the coalition — led by New York Attorney General Letitia James — filed a lawsuit to block the Trump Administration’s Public Charge Rule. Soon after, in September 2019, the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which was granted by the district court in October 2019 and affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in August 2020. Until the dismissal yesterday, that preliminary injunction had been stayed by the Supreme Court.

This press release was produced by the AG's Office. The views expressed here are the author's own.