RIGHT SPEAK: President Trump Asks Supreme Court To Allow Plan Restricting Green Cards For Benefit-Dependent Immigrants

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The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for permission to enforce a new rule that allows authorities to consider a foreign national’s reliance on government benefits when deciding whether to give them a green card.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides that aliens should not be admitted if they are “likely at any time to become a public charge.” In the past, the government defined a “public charge” as a person primarily dependent on a cash assistance program, but the Trump administration expanded that definition in August 2019 to include people who use Medicaid, housing benefits or food stamps for a period of months.

A federal trial judge in Manhattan put that change on hold in October 2019. The administration asked the high court to lift that ruling and told the justices in legal papers that it forces officials to give green cards to foreign nationals who should not be admitted, which can’t be revoked even if the government prevails in the legal fight.

“As a result of the injunctions, the government is precluded from implementing its chosen policy and, indeed, will grant lawful permanent resident status to aliens who are statutorily ‘inadmissible,'” the government’s Jan. 13 stay application reads. “No practical means exist to reverse those determinations once made.”

Two separate sets of plaintiffs brought challenges to the rule, which are now before the Supreme Court. Three states and the city of New York filed the first suit, while a coalition of private organizations that provide aid to immigrants brought the second.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels issued two injunctions against the rule. Daniels found the administration’s definition of public charge was not a reasonable interpretation of the INA and that the administration failed to give a reasonable explanation for the change.

Elsewhere in the decision, Daniels said the new rule is “repugnant to the American Dream of the opportunity for prosperity and success through hard work and upward mobility.”

“Immigrants have always come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their posterity,” Daniels added. “With or without help, most succeed.”