When immigrants come to the US, there’s an expectation that they will be able to care for themselves without relying on federal assistance. In fact, the public charge rule is supposed to ensure that, which is why former President Donald Trump strengthened it. Democrats sued to block the change and now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
On February 22, the justices granted a petition of certiorari to hear the case to rescind Trump’s changes to the rules. Since 1996, the public charge rule only took into account cash benefits, but the former president expanded it to include programs including food stamps and Medicaid. Democratic states, like New York and Vermont, as well as advocacy groups, sued to stop it from going into effect. Now they’re taking it to the high court.
SCOTUS agrees to review cases involving two controversial Trump administration policies: the "public charge" rule for green card applicants and a ban on federally funded health clinics offering abortion referrals. https://t.co/e9gtGzmgjL
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) February 22, 2021
The Biden administration is reportedly considering changes to the rule again. If the Left succeeds in getting rid of Trump’s expansion, it’ll leave the door open to immigrants gaining citizenship and then living off of the government, adding more stress to already overloaded social safety nets — all at the taxpayers’ expense.
Thank you to our friends at United Voice for contributing this piece.
