New York City Challenges Public Charge Rule

Drastic and unlawful changes to our country's public charge rule.

A rule that makes it possible for someone to be denied immigration status

based on the likelihood of their need for public benefits.

Set to go into effect this coming Friday, September eighteenth,

the new public charge rule expands the list of public benefits that might count

against green card or visa applicants.

If you are a citizen or an individual seeking humanitarian

relief like asylum,

these changes will not affect you.

The new federal public charge rule not only sweeps aside more than

a century of established law, it is intentionally vague as

a means of creating uncertainty and fear, to isolate immigrant New

Yorkers, to force them to make an impossible choice

between make--

meeting their own basic needs and continuing to live in the city that

they love.

Make no mistake, this is an undisguised effort to strip New

Yorkers of the services they rely on, the public benefits they are

entitled to. Families, including those with children who

are US citizens, have already begun to forego essential

services like SNAP, Medicaid, and affordable housing out of the

fear that if they use these programs, immigration officers could use it as

justification to deny them a future in our country.

The toll of this new rule cannot be overstated.

It is estimated that up to four million people from across the

country could un-enroll from their healthcare alone,

including one point eight

million children.

None of this is abstract.

People could die.

As a result of these changes, the rate of premature mortality in

immigrant

communities in New York City could increase by up to ten point six percent

within just the next five years. The data is clear.

Denying people services does not erase their need.

It compounds it, generating a greater cost to our system

that will

be placed on the backs of working people for years to come.

Nothing about this rule will reduce waste or keep Americans safer or

improve New Yorkers' lives. It is simply a vehicle for

confusion and a vehicle for cruelty.

Here in New York City, however, cruelty is not how we seek to govern.

Immigrants are New Yorkers, and like I said once before, to get

to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.

That is why today we are confronting this injustice with the

solidarity

and action that it demands. New York City is leading a coalition of

cities and counties, including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle,

Santa Clara County, and King County, to sue the federal government for the

gross

illegality of their new public charge rule and the irreparable damage that

it will cause.

We are filing our lawsuit alongside a separate challenge led by

Attorney General James. I'm grateful for her partnership in this

fight

and for everything she has done to stand steadfast

al-alongside New Yorkers.