Supreme Court Allows Public Charge Rule to Take Effect

Due to ANCOR’s concerns about its potential effects on immigrants with disabilities and the Direct Support Professional 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. The policy, which had been journeying through the federal court system and blocked in multiple states, will now be taking effect.

As reported by Politico Pulse:

“The Supreme Court on Friday lifted the final statewide freeze on Trump’s new crackdown on legal immigrants’ use of programs like Medicaid, weeks after the high court halted the last nationwide injunction, POLITICO’s Susannah Luthi reports.

Friday’s controversial 5-4 ruling included a blistering dissent from Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who criticized her conservative colleagues’ willingness to interrupt lower court proceedings — where district and appellate judges are still debating the legality of the rule — to benefit the Trump administration.

— Health and legal advocates have warned the rule could severely curb access to health services. Under the public charge rule, immigration officials can deny green cards to legal immigrants if they use Medicaid and other safety-net programs. See Kaiser Family Foundation’s brief.

They’re also worried it will cause unnecessary fear among the broader immigrant population, and Jonathan Petts, co-founder of the Immigrants Like Us nonprofit at Harvard’s Immigration Lab, told Susannah that local groups should run public outreach and education campaigns so immigrants can understand their rights.

‘Even for adults, accessing Medicaid should have no effect on immigration status in the vast majority of cases,’ Petts added.”