This case challenges the Trump administration's new rule to restrict U.S. immigration on "public charge" grounds, building upon our prior success challenging the first Trump administration's similar 2019 Public Charge Rule in Make the Road v. Cucinelli. This is Trump's latest attempt to transform the system of family-based immigration by redefining millions of immigrants as future public charges and to deny them green cards as a result.

The "Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility" rule, in conjunction with published guidance on its operation, serves to vastly expand the number of individuals denied green cards by giving DHS officials broad discretion to deny aspiring immigrants legal permanent resident status. The rule and guidance turn decades of settled procedure on its head by subjecting nearly any conceivable government benefit--for which immigrants are lawfully eligible--into a potential negative factor in the public charge calculus. DHS concedes the rule will create a massive chilling effect on the lawful use of public benefits by noncitizens, including those not even subject to the rule, as well as their U.S. citizen children. Critically, this new rule, like the first rule, is a barely disguised cover for the administration’s racial animus toward non-citizens and their children.

The case claims violations of the Administrative Procedure Act's prohibition on arbitrary and capricious rulemaking, that it is contrary to law, and that DHS failed to follow proper notice-and-comment procedures. It is part of the Center for Constitutional Rights' tradition of fighting for immigrants' rights and economic justice.