(DCWatchdog.com) – The United States Supreme Court has ruled against a request by GOP-led states to reinstate an anti-illegal immigration policy introduced by the Trump administration under which migrants likely to receive government benefits were barred from becoming permanent residents.
The so-called “public charge” rule was adopted by the Republican administration of then-President Donald Trump in February 2020. It was killed by Democrat President Joe Biden shortly after he took over the White House in March 2021.
A lawsuit to restore the rule described as a “hardline immigration policy” designed to prevent illegal immigrants from being motivated by a desire to live off the American welfare state was filed by 14 GOP-run US States, Newsmax reported.
The lawsuit was led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and backed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
The 14 Republican-run states had launched an appeal against their original request for legally defending Trump’s “public charge” rule after the Biden administration first stopped the legal defense of the policy and then revoked it completely.
In 2019, the Trump administration adopted a new definition of “public charges,” making illegal migrants ineligible for a Green Card, i.e., legal US permanent residency.
The expansion of the definition made the term applicable to migrants getting government benefits such as the Medicaid health insurance program or food stamps for over 12 months during any three-year period.
An Illinois-based federal judge had vacated the rule and snubbed a GOP motion for intervention because the state officials’ request arrived too late. The Chicago-based Seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling last June.
The Republican attorneys general argued that they should be allowed to defend Trump’s Green Card rule since it saves US states about $1 billion annually.
Last year, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a separate attempt by GOP state officials to defend the public charge rule but dismissed the case without a ruling.
In September, the administration of President Joe Biden changed the “public charge” definition to a narrower meaning. Under it, immigrants would be considered public charges only when they might become “permanently dependent” on the US government for their subsistence.
The new definition, in effect, resurrected a 1999 regulation, which existed for 20 years.
Last week, the state of Texas filed a separate federal lawsuit against Biden’s new public charge rule.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed an effort by a group of Republican state officials to revive former President Donald Trump's hardline policy https://t.co/EZNnBE977x
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) January 9, 2023
