Court Skeptical of Public Charge Rule as it Takes Effect

Due to ANCOR’s concerns about its potential effects on immigrants with disabilities and the Direct Support Professional (DSP) workforce, we have been closely following the Administration’s efforts to make it harder for immigrants to obtain citizenship if they have ever depended on public benefits, including Medicaid. As reported by Politico Pulse:

“7th CIRCUIT JUDGES HAMMER THE PUBLIC CHARGE RULE — A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voiced strong skepticism of the Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ rule, days after the Supreme Court lifted Illinois’ state-wide freeze on the policy, POLITICO’s Susannah Luthi reports. The new regulations took effect this past Monday after the high court justices stopped a nationwide freeze.

Chief Judge Diane Wood, a Clinton appointee, and Judge Ilana Rovner, a George H.W. Bush appointee, raised major concerns about the policy, with Wood describing it as an attempt to rewrite immigration law.

Yet Judge Amy Coney Barrett — a Trump appointee whose name has been floated as a potential future Supreme Court pick by the administration — threw the administration lawyer defending the rule some lifeline questions to help clarify his position as her colleagues pummeled away. Still, Coney Barrett also seemed frustrated over the administration’s hedging on questions about the scope of its authority to reinterpret immigration law.”