New York City Continues Fight to Stop Public Charge Rule
April 29, 2020
Coalition Asks District Court to Temporarily Halt Rule as Coronavirus Rages On
New York City Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson joined a coalition of three states in filing a motion asking the courts to temporarily halt implementation of the Trump Administration’s Public Charge Rule in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis. A motion seeking a new preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was filed last night after the U.S. Supreme Court, on Friday evening, chose not to act in the matter but ruled that the plaintiffs had the option to take their argument back to the lower court for a decision.
“COVID-19 makes it clear how deeply connected we are in spite of immigration status. Our approaches should be informed by the science and the practical realities of how we live,” said Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson. “New York City’s essential occupations draw heavily from the very immigrant communities that have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are in need of medical care. Every untreated person, with or without status, can compromise the health of others. We urge the court to recognize the science and the practical realities of our life together. It should stay the public charge rule to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.”
Federal law allows lawful immigrants to apply for certain supplemental health and nutritional public benefits if they have been in the country for at least five years. But, last August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a Public Charge Rule that changed the established meaning of public charge, which had long been that immigrants who use basic, non-cash benefits are not considered public charges because they are not primarily dependent on the government for survival. This “bait-and-switch” consequently jeopardized immigrants’ chances of becoming legal permanent residents or renewing their visas if they used these supplemental benefits to which they are legally entitled.
Last August, days after the Trump Administration initially issued the Public Charge Rule, the coalition of states and New York City — led by New York Attorney General Letitia James — filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration rule in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, noting that the rule specifically targets immigrants of color, immigrants with disabilities, and low-income immigrants, while putting these communities at risk, and would have short- and long-term impacts on public health and the economy.
In October 2019, after the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, the district court issued an order that stopped the rule from going into effect during the litigation. The Trump Administration then filed a motion to stay the order, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the request. The Administration finally filed a motion in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction, pending the Second Circuit’s decision in the case and any subsequent petition to the Supreme Court.
Despite the Supreme Court’s decision in January, two weeks ago, the coalition asked the Supreme Court to take emergency measures to temporarily halt its earlier order on the Public Charge Rule until the national coronavirus pandemic is over. While the Supreme Court did not halt its own order on Friday, the court gave the coalition permission to take the request back to the district court, which issued the initial preliminary injunction and originally stopped the rule from going into effect.
Since the initial preliminary injunction motion was argued in the district court, COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the national landscape. The United States went from not a single reported COVID-19 case to more than one million confirmed infections and more than 58,000 confirmed deaths, and is now the country with the most virus-related deaths in the world. More than 292,000 of those infections and more than 17,000 deaths have been reported in New York State alone.
In the months since the outbreak began, cities and states have issued states of emergency. President Donald Trump has declared a national state of emergency and has approved federal disaster declarations for all 50 states and almost all territories.
In the motion asking for a new preliminary injunction from the district court, the coalition asks the court to now take into consideration the extraordinary events of the last two months and the new and devastating effects that the Public Charge Rule has had on the nation’s public-health and economy as COVID-19 has spread across the country, as well as to prevent the rule from impeding efforts to slow the continued spread of the virus happening nationwide. The motion asks the court to temporarily halt further implementation of the Public Charge Rule until the national emergency concerning COVID-19 is over.
Of note in the motion is the fact that immigrants make up a large number of essential workers helping move our nation along during this crisis, and if they don’t have access to the proper health care today, they are more likely to spread the virus to all Americans, inadvertently, tomorrow — not only contributing to the exponential growth of infection rates, but of fatalities as well. In short, “the Rule is undermining efforts to slow the spread of the virus.”
Corporation Counsel Johnson joins attorneys general of New York, Connecticut and Vermont in filing this new motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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