New York City Leads Cities and Counties in Lawsuit Challenging Federal Government’s New Public Charge Rule

Coalition Filing in Southern District of New York Challenges Rule That Could Push Immigrant Families Away from Essential Health Care and Food Assistance

 

New York City Lawsuit Filed Alongside Separate Challenge Led by New York Attorney General 

Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced that New York City, alongside the City of Chicago, the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Santa Clara, the City of Seattle, King County, Washington and the Public Rights Project, filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s new public charge rule.   

  

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes alongside a separate legal challenge led by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. New York is being joined by states, cities, counties and the Public Rights Project across the country in challenging the federal government’s attempt to deny green cards and visas to immigrants based on their use of means-tested, or income-based, local, state, and federal public benefits, without clear definitions or meaningful guardrails. The rule is the latest in the federal government’s relentless assault on immigrant families and their ability to live and work in the cities they call home.    

   

“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades. New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to. That fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting. Families who remain fully eligible for benefits will feel a chilling effect, and all New Yorkers will pay for it,” said Mayor Mamdani. “New York City is proud to lead a coalition of cities and counties — Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Seattle, King County and the Public Rights Project — standing firmly against this cruel and unlawful rule. Our immigrant communities are not a burden. They are the people who make New York City and country great. We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they can continue to live here with dignity and without fear.”   

   

In its lawsuit, the coalition argues that the new public charge rule sweeps aside more than a century of settled law, as well as decades of federal guidance establishing clear limits on how public charge determinations can be made. Instead, the new rule dramatically and unlawfully expands the government’s authority to consider an immigrant’s use of public benefits, allowing the federal government to consider virtually any means-tested or income-based public benefits while inviting officers to make decisions that are inconsistent and discriminatory.   

  

“The federal government has again targeted our immigrant communities with an extremely harmful new federal public charge rule,” said New York City Corporation Counsel Steve Banks. “This new rule sweeps away more than a century of settled law to unlawfully broaden the definition of ‘public charge’ in a way that Congress never intended. No immigrant New Yorker should have to choose between their immigration status and benefits for which they are legally eligible.”  

  

“The federal government’s changes to the public charge rule are creating fear and confusion among immigrant communities, which may keep families from accessing public benefits and services that help keep them healthy and safe,” said MOIA Commissioner Faiza N. Ali. “No one should have to choose between their family’s wellbeing and their future in this country. As New York City and municipalities across the country challenge these changes in court, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs will continue making sure immigrant New Yorkers know their rights, know where to turn to for help and can access trusted legal support.”   

This new rule is designed to create fear. It will have a massive chilling effect across immigrant communities, discouraging New Yorkers from accessing benefits and services for which they or their family members are legally eligible – including many people who are not subject to the rule at all.   

  

The new Public Charge Rule is expected to go into effect on September 18. New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, can call the MOIA’s Immigration Legal Support Hotline at 1-800-354-0365 or 311 and say “Immigration Legal” to get connected to free, safe and confidential immigration legal assistance in their preferred language.