California and the Trump administration are headed to court after California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a 22-state coalition filed a motion to prevent the implementation of the Trump Administration’s public charge rule.
The Trump Administration began implementing its new public charge rule Sept. 18. The rule dramatically expands the ability of immigration officials to use participation in means-tested public benefits programs as grounds to deny lawful permanent residency. Even before the new rule drops, thousands of Californians — especially those in mixed-status families — have dropped out of benefits for which they are eligible, fearing impact to their immigration status.
“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again here: we’re confident in any court,” said Bonta, speaking at an American Community Media news briefing. “We believe we have the facts and the law on our side.”
“So we feel confident in any court. It’s very possible that this case, more likely than not, gets addressed without going to the U.S. Supreme Court. But if it does, we feel confident because this is an action taken by the federal administration. If you just look at the law and apply it to the facts, we should prevail, and that’s what the U.S. Supreme Court should be doing. And if they do that, which they should, we believe we’ll win,” said Bonta.
The new rule impacts immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children, noted the Attorney General. “If a child is a U.S. citizen but their parents are not, under this rule, the benefits that child lawfully receives can be held against their parents.”
”The administration wants to punish immigrant families for using benefits that their children are completely legally entitled to. Congress never intended or authorized immigration officers to have unchecked discretion to deny someone legal status for using government programs, but that’s exactly what this rule gives them,” said Bonta. “That’s why we’re asking the court to strike down this unlawful rule and guidance that comes with it because no one is above the law, not even the president.”
The Trump Administration implemented a slightly different version of public charge in 2020, the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term. The Biden Administration then narrowed the scope of public charge.
Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson spoke about the implementation of the rule in 2020. “In our previous experience with public charge, we did see a very significant chilling effect. People who were eligible and able to access critical basic need services were disenrolling or not applying for them out of fear.”
The rule does not apply to everyone seeking to change immigration status to permanent residency. Refugees, asylees, and certain humanitarian immigrants are among those exempt from the public charge ground of inadmissibility. Lawful permanent residents applying for citizenship also generally are not subject to the test. People applying to renew their green cards are also not subject to the public charge rule.
“All across California, there is so much fear, so much concern, so much thinking about what this means for people individually, and for their family, in terms of health, access to food supports and other resources within our broader health and human services safety net,” said Johnson. “And we know that this is very much intentionally chaotic.
