No Impact on Immigrant Healthcare or Public Assistance Benefits From Upcoming Supreme Court decision on “Public Charge” rule

The Supreme Court will soon issue an opinion on a lawsuit concerning the devastating Trump “public charge” regulations. The ruling will not change public charge policy, and any local coverage suggesting otherwise could put area immigrant families at risk.

The issue before the Supreme Court is procedural.

The decision will have no effect on eligibility for healthcare and social services and no consequences for immigration applications.

The petition at issue was brought by the Attorney General of Arizona and twelve other states that want to intervene to defend the Trump public charge regulations, after the federal government decided not to defend them. The Supreme Court will rule only on this procedural issue, and its ruling will not change immigration application processing at all. Even if the Supreme Court allows the states to intervene, that ruling would simply result in more litigation, with a final verdict months or even years away.

This case is not cause for alarm, but is a reminder that we must continue to spread the word that the Trump public charge rule is no longer in effect.  Recent polling finds that only 22% of people in immigrant families had heard that the Biden Administration has ended the Trump public charge policy. The same poll found that about 40% of those in immigrant families who need help or care remained reluctant to apply even after learning of the policy change. Earlier research suggests many families remain concerned that the Trump policy is not really gone.

Here are the facts:

· The Biden administration reversed the Trump public charge policy more than a year ago
· Immigrant families can continue to use most healthcare and social service programs for which they qualify with no immigration consequences
· The Supreme Court ruling will not change that fact.

For accurate information about public charge and specific public programs, immigrant families can go to https://keepyourbenefits.org/en/na/

Florida Health Justice Project has previously spoken out against the now-reversed Trump administration public charge rule for its chilling effect on immigrant families seeking health, nutrition and social services. While it directly affected only a small number of people, the Trump regulation sowed fear and confusion among the immigrant community at large, disproportionately affecting children, whose parents have become afraid to enroll them in public assistance programs – Medicaid and SNAP (food assistance) – because they feared immigration consequences.

Media coverage: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/23/supreme-court-hears-dispute-over-bidens-rejection-of-trump-era-immigration-rule.html

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments related to the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, an immigration policy that widened the definition of which immigrants can be denied green cards. An Arizona-led group of red states asked the justices to allow them to defend the rule in federal court, even though the Biden administration had abandoned it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/us/politics/supreme-court-public-charge-rule.html

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The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a tangled dispute over whether Republican-led states may step in to defend a Trump-era immigration policy that the Biden administration has abandoned. The policy, a revision of the “public charge” rule, imposed a new wealth test on applicants for green cards.

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