‘Self-sufficiency is a central part of America’s proud heritage and we proudly stand behind that tradition…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow its new “public charge” rule to go into effect.
The rule would limit the government-subsidized benefits currently available to legal and illegal immigrants.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld a nationwide injunction on the rule last week.
Now the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to lift the ban and allow the administration to proceed.
Under the policy, an immigrant’s dependency on public programs, like Medicaid and food stamps, would be taken into consideration when evaluating the immigrant’s status.
This rule has been in place for years, but the new policy would expand the definition of who is considered a public charge.
Leftist activist groups took the Trump administration to court almost immediately after the new rule was introduced.
The New York-based appeals court ruled that the Trump administration does not have the authority to determine this kind of expansion and, therefore, blocked it.
The current injunction is one of several issued when the rule was rolled out, but other federal appeals courts have already lifted California’s regional injunction and another national injunction issued in Washington.
“Now, more than ever, it is critical that the public charge policy, which the lower courts called ‘repugnant to the American Dream of prosperity and opportunity through hard work and upward mobility,’ continues to be blocked,” claimed the litigants, who represent several activist groups, in a statement.
“Every day our injunction remains in effect, it protects millions of hard-working immigrant families across the nation,” said the statement.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has defended the public charge rule as “well within the law,” maintaining that it is the country’s sovereign right not to have to burden taxpayers with the social welfare of noncitizens seeking to cash in on American prosperity.
“Self-sufficiency is a central part of America’s proud heritage and we proudly stand behind that tradition,” he told CNN.