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The Biden administration on Thursday published its final rule on the forms of government assistance that legal immigrants can receive without disqualifying them from a green card — including food stamps and Medicaid.
The rule, which will go into effect in December, will codify guidance put in place during the Clinton administration and would depart significantly from a now-reversed Trump-era rule issued in 2019 that significantly expanded the forms of welfare that would mark an immigrant as a "public charge."
The "public charge" has been a long-standing concept in immigration law and refers to someone deemed likely to rely on government assistance — it is a condition for denying someone immigration status.
The Biden rule would mean that green card applicants would only be considered a public charge "if they are likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the government" for help. Reliance on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), cash assistance under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state, tribal and local cash assistance for income maintenance would still be considered when making that assessment.
However, immigrants would be able to receive benefits that were ruled out by the Trump-era rule, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps, housing vouchers and Medicaid benefits. The Trump rule, which is no longer in effect, defined "public charge" as an immigrant who receives one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months within a 36-month period.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill on May 4, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Trump officials had said that the rule promoted self-sufficiency and protected U.S. taxpayers from foreign nationals who would become reliant on public benefits. But the Biden administration had said it was not in keeping with U.S. values.
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"The principle driving it is an old American value, and that’s self-sufficiency," Ken Cuccinelli, former acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told Fox News Digital in an interview in 2019.
Ken Cuccinelli was the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019 during the Trump administration. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Wednesday that the new rule "ensures fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members."
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"Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them," he said.
The rule would not affect illegal immigrants, and applies primarily to immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. legally and are on some form of temporary visa and are applying for permanent residency in the U.S. Public charge assessments are not made of asylum seekers, refugees, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients and others.
DHS said it would be conducting "public outreach" to minimize what it described as the "chilling effects" of the Trump-era rule on those seeking government assistance.
