BS BULLETIN
- Beginning Sept. 18, immigration officers will get broader discretion to decide whether green-card applicants are likely to become dependent on government assistance.
- DHS is scrapping Biden’s narrower 2022 public-charge framework and allowing officers to examine the applicant’s overall circumstances.
- New green-card forms rolling out in September will seek additional financial and household information.
The Trump administration is restoring a fairly old-fashioned idea to legal immigration: If you want to make America your permanent home, you should be able to support yourself.
Beginning Sept. 18, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers will have broader authority when determining whether certain immigrants seeking green cards are likely to become a “public charge” — the longstanding immigration-law term for someone expected to become dependent on government support.
The Department of Homeland Security formally rescinded the Biden administration’s 2022 public-charge regulation in July, saying the Biden rule was “unduly restrictive” and prevented immigration officers from accurately assessing whether an applicant might ultimately become dependent on taxpayers. The new policy applies to applications for admission made on or after Sept. 18 and adjustment-of-status applications submitted on or after that date.
USCIS is also preparing revised immigration forms seeking additional information that officers can use when making those determinations, Bloomberg Law reported Wednesday.
Under federal immigration law, officers must consider several factors when making a public-charge determination, including an applicant’s age, health, family status, assets, financial resources, education and skills. The administration says officers will now have more freedom to consider the “totality of the circumstances” rather than operating under Biden-era restrictions.
“The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law and protecting American taxpayers from subsidizing aliens who may become dependent on public benefits,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said when the change was announced.
The principle isn’t something Donald Trump invented. The public-charge concept has existed in American immigration law for well over a century, and USCIS itself notes that federal law has long embraced the idea that immigrants should generally rely on “their own capabilities and the resources of their families, their sponsors, and private organizations” rather than government assistance.
What changes now is how aggressively the government can examine the question. Under the Biden administration’s 2022 policy, most non-cash benefits — including programs such as SNAP, Medicaid and housing assistance — were generally excluded from public-charge determinations. Biden officials argued that broader rules could frighten legally eligible immigrant families, including U.S.-citizen children, away from using government programs.
The Trump administration rejected that narrower interpretation, saying it conflicts with congressional intent and prevents immigration officials from considering potentially relevant evidence. The revived approach could allow benefits such as Medicaid, food assistance and housing subsidies to become part of a broader assessment of whether an applicant is likely to depend on taxpayers, although eligibility will still be determined individually rather than by a single automatic benefits test.
This does not mean everyone who has ever received a government benefit is automatically denied a green card. Officers are supposed to evaluate each case individually, and numerous categories of immigrants remain exempt from the public-charge test, including refugees, asylees and certain victims of trafficking and other crimes.
USCIS will also again permit certain applicants found inadmissible solely on public-charge grounds to post a public-charge bond — essentially a financial guarantee intended to protect taxpayers if the immigrant later becomes dependent on public support.
In other words, this isn’t an immigration ban. It is an immigration standard.
And after years of a Washington immigration debate in which asking whether newcomers can support themselves was treated in some quarters as practically indecent, the Trump administration is putting that question squarely back on the application.
MY QUICK TAKE
This may be one of the great mysteries of modern American politics: Why is this controversial?
When somebody applies for a mortgage, the bank wants to know whether he can pay it back. Rent an apartment? They check your income. Buy a car? Credit check.
Try to get a green card and permanently join the United States? Apparently asking whether taxpayers are going to have to support you is suddenly an assault on humanity. Sorry.
America is extraordinarily generous, but a green card is not a rewards card for the federal benefits program.
And notice what the Trump administration isn’t saying. It isn’t saying immigrants can never fall on hard times. Americans fall on hard times. Life happens. It’s saying that when the United States is deciding whom to admit permanently, the government ought to be allowed to ask whether the person appears capable of standing on his own two feet.
That used to be called common sense. Now Washington probably needs a 400-page regulation to rediscover it.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- The Hill — Green-card applicants to face greater public charge scrutiny
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — USCIS issues guidance on making public charge inadmissibility determination
- Associated Press — Trump administration revives rule that could deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits
- Bloomberg Law — DHS revamps green card form with eye on public charge burdens
