The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has proposed undoing the Biden-era public charge rule and replacing it with a broader regulation that could let immigration officers factor in immigrants’ use of social and health services when deciding eligibility for future immigration benefits, including green cards. The Department of Homeland Security says the change, to be published in the Federal Register, would “restore broader discretion to evaluate all pertinent facts” and promote a policy that immigrants be self-reliant rather than dependent on government benefits.
Advocates and health providers immediately warned the proposal is vague and likely to have a chilling effect, discouraging lawfully present immigrants — and sometimes U.S. citizen family members — from seeking medical care, nutrition assistance or other help they qualify for. Adriana Cadenas, executive director of the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition, said the shift would endanger the nation’s health and economy by deterring people from accessing needed services.
The proposal arrives amid Republican allegations of widespread fraud in immigrants’ use of safety-net programs. However, people without legal status are already barred from programs such as SNAP, the health insurance marketplace and most Medicaid. Recent congressional measures have further restricted some lawfully present groups — including many refugees and people with humanitarian protections — from SNAP and certain health coverage, and have reduced incentives for states to provide care regardless of immigration status. The new rule would also permit immigration officials to consider state-funded benefits when adjudicating applications. U.S. citizen children of noncitizen parents generally remain eligible for these programs.
The administration’s push to limit benefits to noncitizens follows an executive order signed by President Trump in February seeking to end “all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens.” Claims of widespread misuse have little supporting evidence: analyses show only about 1% of SNAP over- or underpayments relate to citizenship status, a figure that does not demonstrate broad fraudulent use by people without legal authorization.
Public charge has long been contentious. In 2019, the Trump administration expanded the list of benefits that could count against someone as a public charge, a change critics said discouraged immigrants from using food aid, health services and other supports during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Biden administration issued a rule closer to earlier practices, stating that use of benefits like SNAP, housing assistance or transportation vouchers would not be weighed against green card applicants. The DHS proposal would reverse that approach and broaden the benefits immigration authorities may consider when assessing applicants, a move opponents say risks harming public health and well-being while adding discretion and uncertainty to immigration decisions.