News > Press Releases
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Files Legal Challenge to Public Charge Regulation
Posted on Oct 01 2019
October 1, 2019—In a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Baltimore, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota challenged the constitutionality and legality of recent changes to the public charge rule applied to immigrants. ILCM joined the City of Baltimore and five other plaintiffs in this challenge, which is one of at least nine legal challenges filed across the country.
The new rule sets an unprecedented high bar for demonstrating that applicants for legal permanent residence (green cards) and family-based visas are not now and never will be dependent on public assistance. In addition to marking receipt of certain public benefits as evidence of “public charge,” the rule applies to millions of immigrants holding down full-time but low-paying jobs. In short, says the complaint, “The Public Charge Rule makes dramatic changes to immigration policy that are designed to reduce legal immigration levels and to disfavor poorer immigrants and immigrants of color.”
“The public charge rule is one more example of the heartless anti-immigrant policies promulgated by this administration,” said Lenore Millibergity, senior attorney at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “Immigrants are not a burden on our public benefits. They are less likely to use public benefit programs, using fewer welfare and entitlements benefits per person than native-born Americans.”
During the public comment period, the Department of Human Services received more than a quarter of a million comments on the rule, and the overwhelming majority of these comments opposed the rule.