The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) formal rollback of a Trump-era policy to limit immigration of those likely to need government aid will ensure "fair and humane treatment," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a recent department news release.
The new "final rule" dismantled the "public charge" rule implemented by former President Donald Trump, which denied permanent resident status to immigrants who received or expected to receive food assistance, housing assistance, Medicaid or other public benefits.
"This action ensures fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members," Mayorkas said in the release. "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."
President Joe Biden's administration ended enforcement of the Trump public charge rule in March 2021, a CBS News report said.
The new rule "provides clarity and consistency for noncitizens on how DHS will administer the public charge ground of inadmissibility," the release said.
"The rule restores the historical understanding of a 'public charge' that had been in place for decades, until the prior administration began to consider supplemental public health benefits such as Medicaid and nutritional assistance as part of the public charge inadmissibility determination," the release said. The new rule also has the aim of showing the Biden administration’s commitment to the restoration of faith in the country's legal immigration system.
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act already makes a noncitizen inadmissible to the U.S. if they are "likely at any time to become a public charge"— that is, likely to become dependent on the government for subsistence. Prior to the Trump administration's public charge rule, noncash government benefits were excluded from admission, or green card, consideration.
The Trump public charge rule caused a drop in enrollments "among individuals who are not subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility, such as U.S. citizen children in mixed-status households," the release said.
Formal dismantling of the Trump-era public charge rule isn't all that needs to be done but it's a start, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur M. Jaddou said in the release.
"Though there is still much to do to overcome confusion and fear, we will continue to work to break down barriers in the immigration system, restore faith and trust with our immigrant communities and eliminate excessive burdens in the application process," Jaddou said.
