NYC, NYS suing Trump administration over denial of green cards to immigrants who use SNAP, Medicaid

New York is suing to stop an imminent Trump administration policy to deny green cards to noncitizens who use welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, school meal programs or other public benefits.

The lawsuits, filed separately by lawyers for Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Attorney General Letitia James, seek a similar outcome: to immediately halt the policy before it takes effect starting Friday, and to ultimately stop it for good. The policy also applies to parents of citizen children who get public benefits, allowing immigration officers to deny green cards to the parents.

"People could die as a result of these changes," said Mamdani, who announced that the city's lawsuit is being joined by Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and other municipalities.

Thousands of families would be affected by the rule change, according to Faiza Ali, Mamdani’s commissioner of immigrant affairs. But, she said, the impact would be much greater than that, as there would be a chilling effect on noncitizen immigrants of all types, including families of mixed-immigration status, who might otherwise seek benefits such as SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

The Trump administration says the policy, covering what are called "public charges," furthers the intent of federal law that "aliens in the United States be self-sufficient and not dependent on taxpayer-funded government benefits," as the administration put it in an announcement earlier this year. 

A similar policy in 2019 during the first Trump term was blocked by the courts.

Congress never intended for the law to apply to "individuals who apply every now and then for public assistance, because they fall on hard times. And you should not also equate public charge with dependency," James said during a news conference with Mamdani at City Hall on Wednesday.

"This has nothing to do with dependency," she said.

James' lawsuit includes 21 other states and the District of Columbia.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that issued the new policy, did not comment. It referred inquiries to its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately return an email.

Mamdani said the city has seen immigrants unenrolling from programs such as publicly funded healthcare.

"This is something that will have devastating consequences for immigrant New Yorkers, far beyond just those who it technically applies to," Mamdani said. "And a lot of the reason for that distinction is that we have seen a climate of fear for immigrants regardless of their status." 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.