Trump administration broadens ‘public charge’ test for green cards, weighing SNAP, Medicaid, housing aid
Exceptions for refugees will remain in place, and DHS officials have emphasized that the change will not be decisive on its own but will simply help officials make a determination in each immigrant case based on a "totality of circumstances."
Officials this week announced the Trump administration is restoring a broader “public charge” test that will allow immigration officials to consider applicants’ use of food, health care, housing, and other means-tested benefits when deciding whether to grant green cards or admit people to the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security’s final rule appeared for public inspection July 16 and is scheduled for formal publication July 20. It will take effect Sept. 18 and apply to applications for admission made on or after that date and applications for adjustment of status submitted on or after it.
The policy rescinds most of a 2022 Biden administration regulation that sharply limited what benefits officers could examine. Under the new framework, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may consider an applicant’s use of programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and government-subsidized housing.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement posted to X that the agency is “reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers.”
“Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves,” Edlow added.
Federal immigration law already makes a noncitizen inadmissible if officials determine that he or she is likely “at any time to become a public charge.” The statute instructs officers to consider at least the applicant’s age, health, family status, assets, resources, financial condition, education, and skills.
The Biden-era regulation largely restricted the benefits portion of that inquiry to current cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutional care paid for by the government. The Department of Homeland Security argues those restrictions prevented officials from considering all the information Congress intended them to evaluate.
The new rule does not establish an automatic denial for anyone who uses public assistance. Instead, officers will make individualized decisions based on the “totality of the circumstances,” according to a draft document available online and intended for publication July 20.
DHS emphasizes in the document that receiving a means-tested benefit is only one factor and is “not outcome determinative.” An officer considering SNAP, for example, may examine whether the assistance was temporary or long-term, how recently it was received, whether the applicant is employed, and the person’s health, family circumstances, finances, education, and skills.
Benefits that were previously excluded from public-charge reviews generally will not count if they were received before Sept. 18. Assistance used by an applicant’s relatives also will not ordinarily be attributed to the applicant, including benefits received by American children in mixed-status households.
In addition, refugees and people granted asylum remain exempt from the public-charge ground when they enter the country and when they later seek permanent residency. Federal law provides exemptions for several other humanitarian categories as well.
