Immigrants using Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers were hit hard by Trump rule.
In response to a Biden Administration request, the US Supreme Court has dismissed a case challenging the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule aimed at limiting green cards for those deemed likely to accept public benefits.
The top court’s ruling Tuesday signaled that the Biden administration is likely to scrap the rule on its own, according to The Hill.
The White House has already mandated a review of the rule by the Department of Homeland Security in a February executive order, the report noted.
The Biden administration has taken a similar posture in other major immigration cases, convincing the Supreme Court to cancel hearings on cases challenging Trump’s border wall and his changes to the asylum process, the Hill noted.
READ: Federal judge in New York blocks the public charge rule (October 11, 2019)
The Supreme Court last month agreed to hear challenges to the 2019 rule by a number of states and advocacy groups that argued it amounted to a wealth test for immigrants.
The Trump administration insisted it was in the best interests of the US to ensure immigrants could be self-sufficient.
The “public charge” provision dates back at least to the Immigration Act of 1882, according to CNN.
Federal lawmakers at the time wanted to make sure that immigrants would be able to take care of themselves and not end up being a public burden.
Under current regulations put in place in 1996, the term is defined as someone who is “primarily dependent” on government assistance, meaning it supplies more than half their income.
But it only counted cash benefits, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income from Social Security.
READ: Which Public Benefits can constitute Public Charge for green card applicants (August 19, 2019)
The Trump administration’s rule widened the definition of who is expected to be dependent on the government by including more benefit programs.
Legal Aid Society, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. and others who had challenged the rule welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.
“Immigrant families can now access life-saving health care, food, and housing assistance for which they are eligible without fear that they will lose the chance to obtain lawful permanent residence, because the actions today mean that the harmful Trump public charge rule will again be blocked,” they said in a joint statement.
“The Trump rule erected an invisible wall in the form of a wealth test that discriminated against people on the basis of race as a condition for regularizing their immigration status.
“And because of the public charge rule, immigrant families have been living in fear of using essential benefits like healthcare, despite serving as frontline workers who have been among those hardest hit by Covid-19,” it added.
READ: New Public Charge rule likely to cause further delays in green cards for Indians (August 15, 2019)
“For more than two years, immigrant families have been afraid to access critical services for which they were eligible because of the previous administration’s public charge rule and anti-immigrant rhetoric,” Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children, stated.
The rule negatively impacted children’s health and development, and was a public health disaster during the coronavirus pandemic, the child advocacy organization said.