Illinois, Chicago sue to block Trump plan to restrict green cards to legal Medicaid, SNAP users

CHICAGO — The state of Illinois and city of Chicago, along with a coalition of other states and cities controlled by Democrats, are suing the Trump administration to block a new federal rule that would give immigration officials broader authority to deny green cards to those who have legally been using public aid like Medicaid and food stamps.

The new rule, set to go into effect Friday, expands longstanding policy that bars immigrants from obtaining green cards if they are likely to become primarily dependent on the government. Historically, immigration officers have deemed green card applicants as potential “public charges” based on participation in cash assistance programs like welfare and use of government-funded long-term institutionalized care like in a nursing home.

But after Friday, that list will expand to more common uses of public aid by immigrant families including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as food stamps — and federal housing programs. While undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for public aid, mixed-status families can legally benefit from those programs via children who are U.S. citizens.

Additionally, most noncitizens without green cards are similarly ineligible for government assistance, but certain lawfully present noncitizens, including refugees, asylum seekers and human trafficking survivors, have been allowed to use these programs. However, the massive budget bill championed by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans last summer significantly restricted eligibility to those groups.

The Democratic leaders behind the lawsuits, filed Monday in New York federal court, warned the rule will sow fear and confusion in immigrant families. A statement from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said the rule will put immigrants in a trick box as it defines “no clear limit on which benefits, or how much use, count against an applicant, leaving families to guess which forms of assistance might put their immigration status at risk.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called the rule “cruel” and noted that more than half a million Chicago residents were born outside the U.S.

“Chicago will not stand by while the federal government forces immigrant families to choose between putting food on the table, taking their children to the doctor, or protecting their ability to remain in this country,” he said in a statement.

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The lawsuits allege the rule usurps Congress and gives individual immigration officers too much power. The lawsuit filed by Illinois and 21 other states cites broad language in the new rule that authorizes immigration officers to consider “whether an alien has applied for, been approved or certified for, received, or will likely receive means-tested public benefits.”

“Congress never intended for the public charge ground to be weaponized against immigrants and their family members who merely use supplemental or temporary amounts of public assistance to which they are lawfully entitled,” the states’ lawsuit said. “Yet that is exactly what Defendants now seek to do through the final rule challenged here.”

The Democratic leaders also point to the rule’s explicit refusal to spell out how officers should weigh a green card applicant’s participation in a certain program and how long the benefits were used. By “not drawing distinctions” between supplemental and other benefits, the states’ lawsuit said, the new rule runs into the same legal problems that doomed the Trump administration’s first attempt at altering the public charge rule in 2019.

“Like the 2019 Rule, the 2026 Final Rule enables Defendants to make a noncitizen’s receipt of supplemental non-cash benefits, including a citizen child’s use of supplemental benefits to which they are statutorily entitled, however minimal or however long ago, indicative of being inadmissible as a ‘public charge,’” the states’ lawsuit said.

Courts blocked earlier Trump attempt

The 2019 effort was blocked by federal courts, including the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals, though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately allowed the rule to take effect everywhere but Illinois in early 2020. However, the Biden administration halted the appeals and set its own public charge rules, which were substantially similar to 1999-era policies.

The Democratic leaders warned of a cascade effect caused by the new rule as noncitizens are prompted to disenroll from public benefits. Without Medicaid coverage, Raoul’s office warned, immigrants will delay care and turn to emergency rooms, “straining safety-net hospitals and community health centers, and increasing costs for everyone.”

Schools could also be at risk of losing automatic certification for free and reduced-price meal programs when SNAP and Medicaid enrollment drops below certain thresholds, which would impair access to school food programs for all children in that school. Falling enrollment in public aid would also shrink federal Title I education funding for schools in areas with higher immigrant populations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates federal Medicaid funding to states could see a $4 billion annual cut, while SNAP payments would shrink by $1 billion annually.

But a DHS spokesperson cited those cuts as a positive, accusing the states and cities challenging the law of being “terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs.”

“We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome,” Chandler Rebel said in a statement.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.