The Trump administration announced a rule on Monday that would allow federal officials to deny green cards and visa extensions to legal immigrants who have used certain public assistance programs, including food assistance. The aggressive immigration policy could have a chilling effect on enrollment in food assistance programs to which legal immigrants are entitled, advocates say.
Existing federal law, the so-called “public charge” rule, requires that those seeking to immigrate legally to the U.S. to demonstrate they will not rely on public benefits. But the new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rule broadens the guidelines for who is defined as a public charge.
Prior guidelines defined a public charge as someone who is primarily dependent on public assistance. The updated guidelines redefine a public charge as someone who is “more likely than not” to receive public assistance over any 12 months in a 36-month period. And the new definition includes Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It also raises the requirements aspiring citizens must meet to qualify for education, work skills, and healthcare assistance.
“We must ensure that non-citizens do not abuse our public benefit programs and jeopardize the social safety net needed by vulnerable Americans,” said a White House press release.
Yet immigrants participate in public assistance programs at low rates. Unauthorized immigrants are already barred from participating in SNAP, though their children are eligible in some cases. More than 85 percent of participants in food assistance programs and Medicaid were born in the U.S.
Since the draft public charge rule was announced last fall, advocates have said the rule could chill participation in public assistance programs even by eligible immigrants, putting families in the position of having to choose between accessing food, healthcare, or housing and pursuing a visa or green card. One 2018 study found that participation in SNAP by immigrant families dropped 10 percent in 2018, in part attributable to rising fear of immigration enforcement among participants.
Food groups have closely watched the public charge rulemaking process, since the rule’s new version includes SNAP benefits, and many condemned Monday’s final rule.
“[T]his rule will create an impossible choice for people struggling to put food on the table,” said Kate Leone, chief government relations officer of Feeding America, in a statement. “Moreover, the proposal has already created fear and confusion, dissuading immigrant communities — regardless of whether they are impacted by the rule — from seeking food assistance of any kind.”
Even before its finalization, “the specter of the rule — in conjunction with other attacks on immigrants by the Trump administration — has led to a chilling effect on the use of SNAP and other critical nutrition assistance programs, resulting in a poorer, sicker, and hungrier nation,” James D. Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center, said in a statement.
And the rule could especially restrict access to food and other essential resources for immigrants of color, says Victoria Quevedo, food policy coordinator at La Semilla Food Center, which works in southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. “This change to the public charge rule is just another assault on people of color during a time when immigrants and refugees are being vilified, criminalized, and violently targeted by this administration and the hate groups that support it.”
Members of Congress also spoke out against the rule. “Today’s finalized public charge rule is a continuation of President Trump’s demonization of immigrants,” wrote Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, in a statement. “The United States must remain a beacon of hope and opportunity for people here and from across the world. President Trump and his administration should immediately rescind this misguided rule.”
The Trump administration has already denied thousands of visa applications based on a perceived risk that the applicant would become a public charge. Between October 2018 and July 2019, the State Department denied more than 5,300 visas from Mexican nationals on the grounds that the applicants were too ill or poor. In the last full year of the Obama administration, the department issued just seven such rejections.
More than 266,000 comments were filed on the public charge rule, more than triple the number for an average rule change. The rule will take effect in mid-October.