Posted on 07/16/2026 12:08:31 PM PDT by DFG
In a move that will place hundreds of thousands of green card applicants under broader scrutiny each year, the Trump administration is allowing immigration officers to consider whether some applicants have used taxpayer-funded benefits — including Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance — when determining whether they qualify for permanent legal status.
The Department of Homeland Security is poised to rescind a 2022 Biden-era regulation narrowing how officers apply a long-standing "public charge" test — an immigration screening tool used to determine whether applicants are likely to rely on government support — according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials.
The change may directly affect hundreds of thousands of people applying for green cards from inside the U.S. each year. It could trigger a broader ripple effect if immigrant families avoid health care, food, or housing assistance — even when they or their U.S.-citizen children legally qualify — out of fear that tapping into those benefits could ultimately hurt their immigration cases.
What does the final rule change?
Under existing federal immigration law, some individuals applying for a visa, admission to the U.S. or green cards can be deemed inadmissible if the government determines they are likely "at any time" to become a public charge.
The Biden-era rule, issued in 2022, limited the benefits DHS could consider to primarily cash welfare payments meant to cover basic living expenses and long-term institutional care paid for by the federal government.
The new final rule restores the broader discretion USCIS had during the first Trump administration, so that officers can conduct case-by-case reviews that consider an applicant's age, health, family status, assets, financial resources, education, skills and whether the person has received means-tested taxpayer-funded benefits.
Those benefits can include food stamps, Medicaid and even housing assistance, according to USCIS officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
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None of them should be getting a nickel from the US taxpayer.
L
If an immigrant is on the dole, they need to be deported. This is bullshit.
I HATE IT when the commie media refers to illegals as “Immigrants” they are NOT immigrants, they are bottom feeders who came here for freebies
I agree. Why do they need a new rule? The law states that they can’t become a “Public Charge”. Many immigrants were turned away at Ellis Island because officials knew they wouldn’t be able to support themselves.
My parents were immigrants.
LEGAL immigrants.
They had to prove they had jobs waiting, and their sponsors had to guarantee that the sponsors would be responsible for any financial needs.
“Those benefits can include food stamps, Medicaid and even housing assistance, according to USCIS officials.”
Even HOUSING assistance?? Why NOT give housing to the rest of the world? We have so much here and it is so cheap. j/k
The average illegal costs US taxpayers $69K.
“brown paper bag test”
I’m not sure what you mean, FRiend.
How about:
Absolutely no welfare benefits of any kind were allowed for legal immigrants. They needed sponsors to guarantee no charge would be borne by the government.
FTA
The new final rule conducts migrant case-by-case reviews that consider:
<><>a migrant’s age, health, family status,
<><>assets, financial resources,
<><>education, work skills,
<><>whether the migrant pocketed tax dollar benefits.
<><>benefits that include food stamps,
<><>Medicaid
<><>and housing financial assistance
<><>according to Trump’s USCIS officials.
If an immigrant is on the dole, we need to pull organs out of them and give them to needy US citizens.
Then throw the carcass into the ocean.
this is how it was when I came here in 1991
Sounds like a plan.
I think it is like, when I hyperventilate from anxiety, I put a brown paper bag over my mouth.
And I drink all the vodka inside.
My anxiety melts away.
“””The Department of Homeland Security is poised to rescind a 2022 Biden-era regulation”””
Why has it taken this long to rescind? Could have been done months ago.
Zero tolerance for illegal alien welfare.
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