Homeland Security on Thursday announced it has adopted a new lenient policy on immigrants’ use of welfare, tossing a Trump-era policy that would have been far stricter.
Under the new system, known as the “public charge” rule, immigrants will only be penalized for potential welfare use if the government believes they will eventually become “primarily dependent” on government payments.
By contrast, living in government housing, using Medicaid for health coverage or accepting food stamps wouldn’t count against an immigrant.
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the new rule will deliver “fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants.”
“Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them,” he said.
The concept of the public charge rule is that immigrants should be able to pay their own way and not be a burden on Americans. A public charge policy has been in place dating back to the late 1800s.
Illegal immigrants are not supposed to be eligible for any public benefits, though they can accept some benefits on behalf of their U.S. citizen children.
The current public charge law was written by Congress in 1996. It allows the government to refuse to grant permanent legal status to immigrants believed likely to depend on government assistance to support themselves here.
Congress left it to the administration to lay out exactly how that calculation would work. In 1999, the Clinton administration released “interim” guidance saying that only a limited set of programs would be considered.
Few immigrants ran afoul of the rule.
In 2019, the Trump administration adopted a new policy expanding the programs that would be judged. It was quickly halted by federal courts, but in the short time it was in effect it proved not to be particularly effective.
Of 47,555 applicants whose cases were ruled on during that time, only three were denied on “public charge” grounds. Another two were given notices of intent to deny. In all five cases, the applicants were later approved.
But officials said the rule did have dangerous side effects — in particular, immigrants who feared accessing programs even though they were eligible for them.
Mr. Mayorkas’ new policy returns largely to the one from the Clinton era.