The Trump Department of Homeland Security rescinded a Biden administration rule that protected immigrants who rely on government benefits.
According to a DHS final rule, immigration officials will be able to deny immigrants green cards if they rely on food stamps, Medicaid, housing aid, and other aid programs.
The rule nullifies a 2022 DHS final rule under Biden that the Trump administration rule repeatedly described as a “straitjacket” for immigration officers. It will go into effect and apply to green card applications filed after September 15, according to a post on X by immigration lawyer and policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
“They straitjacketed DHS officers by limiting what public benefits DHS can consider in the totality of the circumstances,” the rule reads.
DHS projected that the final rule will lead to 1.27 million people disenrolling or forgoing their benefits, including U.S. citizen children in mixed-status households.
“DHS acknowledges the final rule may indeed produce indirect effects on the receipt of means-tested public benefits,” the final rule reads. “Moreover, individuals who might choose to disenroll from or forgo future enrollment in a public benefits program may include aliens as well as U.S. citizen members of mixed-status households.”
The rule is also expected to cut about $13 billion a year in food, health, and housing aid that would otherwise reach families, according to DHS.
In a post on X, Reichlin-Melnick noted, “Crucially, this new rule does not establish new standards,” and, “Instead, it erases Biden-era standards, letting DHS issue its own ‘subregulatory’ guidance — which may be MUCH more restrictive.”
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