Attorney General Bonta Sues to Block Trump Administration’s Cruel New Public Charge Rule
Dramatic expansion of who is considered a “public charge” would force millions to choose between protecting their pathway to citizenship and access to healthcare or food assistance for themselves and their families
SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, co-leading a multistate coalition, sued to block the Trump Administration’s new rule dramatically expanding the ability of immigration officials to use participation in public benefits programs as grounds to deny lawful permanent residency. Historically, the public charge ground of inadmissibility has been a narrow provision that excluded only those immigrants who were expected to become primarily dependent on federal programs for their subsistence. In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the Trump Administration’s rewrite of more than a century of settled immigration law exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and should be vacated.
“No family should have to choose between accessing healthcare and nutrition assistance today — or protecting their pathway to a green card tomorrow,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Trump Administration is seeking to rewrite more than 100 years of law with its expansive new definition of who is considered a ‘public charge.’ In doing so, it is providing individual immigration officers with the discretion and power to punish families for lawfully accessing certain public benefits programs during short-term periods of need. This Administration’s cruelty continues to know no bounds. We’re going to court on behalf of the millions of immigrants who call this state home — and we will fight to get this unlawful rule undone.”
For more than 140 years, the term “public charge” has been understood by states, Congress, courts, and federal agencies to mean an individual who has become, or is likely to become, primarily dependent on the government for long-term subsistence. Under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a noncitizen who is likely to become a public charge is generally inadmissible to the United States and ineligible to become a lawful permanent resident.
In 2019, the Trump Administration sought to radically expand this definition to include the use of healthcare through federally-funded Medicaid, nutrition and food support through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Section 8 housing assistance. That rule was successfully challenged by California and other states and later reversed by the Biden Administration and restored to its original meaning. Now, the Trump Administration is trying again, reversing Biden-Era corrective guidance and eviscerating existing regulations that place guardrails on immigration officers' discretion in making public charge determinations.
Under the new final rule, immigration officers will have unprecedented, sweeping new discretion to deny admission, and to block pathways to lawful permanent residency, based on participation in public programs — programs that Congress or the states expressly chose to allow noncitizens or their U.S.-citizen family members to participate in. These officers will now be able to rely on any public benefits use for any period of time — and, really, any information at all — in making a public charge inadmissibility determination. For example, immigration agents are now empowered to count U.S. citizen household members’ lawful use of individual benefits, such as a U.S. citizen child’s use of state-provided health insurance, against a noncitizen parent who has been following all the rules.
In a lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the final rule and its implementing guidance exceed the Trump Administration’s statutory authority and are arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the APA. The final rule is inconsistent with the settled meaning — or any other reasonable interpretation — of the INA’s public charge provision. The Trump Administration also failed to engage in the reasoned decision-making process required by the APA, brushing aside the harmful consequences of the regime it sets forth, while relying on legally erroneous justifications. As a result, without court intervention, families across California will be forced to forgo their legal access to essential benefits such as preventive healthcare and nutritional assistance, and in turn, public health, local economies, public education, and public safety will suffer.
Attorney General Bonta is committed to protecting and defending the rights of California's immigrant communities. He previously issued guidance to help California immigrants better understand their rights and protections under the law and avoid immigration scams. You can find more on the California Department of Justice’s work to protect California immigrants at oag.ca.gov/immigrant.
In filing today's lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul lead the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit was filed alongside a coalition of cities and counties, including the City and County of San Francisco and the County of Santa Clara.
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