New York challenges Trump rule making public benefits an immigration risk
Mayor Mamdani and state officials sue over expanded "public charge" policy they say could deter families from seeking healthcare, food, and housing
NEW YORK (MNTV) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and state officials have sued to block a Trump administration rule that broadens the use of public benefits as grounds to deny immigrants residency, warning it could push vulnerable families away from healthcare, food aid, and housing for fear of jeopardizing their status.
The lawsuits, joined by a coalition of sanctuary jurisdictions including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Clara County, and King County, challenge changes to the federal “public charge” rule that took effect this month.
Issued by the Department of Homeland Security in July, the policy lets immigration officers weigh use of noncash benefits — Medicaid, food assistance, and housing aid — when deciding whether an applicant may become a “public charge,” a sharp expansion from 2022 guidelines that focused mainly on cash assistance.
Mamdani called it “an undisguised effort to strip New Yorkers of the services they rely on,” and said families raising U.S.-citizen children were already avoiding programs out of fear. “None of this is abstract. People could die as a result of these changes,” he said, citing a city health-department analysis projecting a 10.6 percent rise in premature deaths in immigrant communities over five years.
The administration disputes that framing.
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson, Zach Kahler, said the policy “is upholding the rule of law and protecting American taxpayers” by ensuring noncitizens are not dependent on public benefits.
Attorney General Letitia James, who filed a parallel suit with nearly two dozen states, warned the effects would ripple outward: “The downstream effects will hurt our economy, will hurt businesses, will hurt government.”
Advocates including the Legal Aid Society called the rule economic screening that could deny residency to tens of thousands of low-income immigrants and disproportionately affect communities of color — turning, they argue, ordinary decisions about seeing a doctor or feeding a child into calculations with immigration consequences.
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