JOIN USUS Supreme Court tosses out Trump immigration rule fight
One of former President Donald Trump's hardline immigration rules -- barring people deemed likely to need government benefits from legal permanent residency -- suffered what could be a mortal blow on Tuesday when the US Supreme Court dismissed litigation over it at the urging of President Joe Biden's administration.
Biden, who has criticised Trump's immigration approach, had been widely expected to dump the policy known as the "public charge" rule. The high court's action and the Biden administration's request for a Chicago-based lower court to toss another case mean the policy likely soon will be rendered unenforceable.
Trump's administration had been fighting multiple lower court decisions against the rule. Those courts had decided that the policy likely violated federal immigration or administrative law by impermissibly expanding the definition of who counts as a "public charge" and greatly increasing the number of people who would be rejected for residency.
His hardline stance toward immigration was a hallmark of Trump's presidency. Opponents of the "public charge" rule called it an illegal "wealth test" for immigrants.
The Supreme Court on February 22 had agreed to hear an appeal that has been filed by Trump's administration of a decision last August by the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals siding with plaintiffs challenging the rule including New York state.
Hours after the Biden administration requested a dismissal, the Supreme Court threw out that case and two others that had been pending before it that had involved 22 mostly Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia.
Biden's administration also asked the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss a Trump appeal of a federal judge's conclusion last November that the rule was unlawful.
A coalition of immigrant rights groups that had challenged the rule, along with the states of New York, Connecticut and Vermont, welcomed the Supreme Court's action.
"Immigrant families can now access life-saving healthcare, 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," the groups said in a statement.
A key issue in the various challenges filed in federal courts across the country was which immigrants would be eligible for legal permanent residency, commonly known as a "green card."
US immigration law has long required officials to exclude people likely to become a "public charge" from permanent residency.
US guidelines in place for the past two decades had said immigrants likely to become primarily dependent on direct cash assistance or long-term institutionalisation, in a nursing home for example, at public expense would be barred.
Trump's policy expanded the public charge bar to anyone deemed likely to receive a much wider range of benefits for more than an aggregate of 12 months over any 36-month period including the Medicaid healthcare program, housing and food assistance.