Supreme Court agrees to dismiss challenge to Trump public charge rule

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to a Biden administration request to dismiss an upcoming case challenging the Trump’s administration’s “public charge” rule, which limited access to green cards for those deemed likely to accept public assistance.

The court had agreed last month to hear challenges to the 2018 rule, but the Biden administration in its request noted that all parties had agreed to ask the court to toss the case.

The request signaled that the White House is likely to scrap the rule on its own. The rule had been challenged by numerous states and advocacy groups who argued it amounted to a wealth test for immigrants. The latest federal government filings were appeals that had been brought by the Trump administration.

The Biden administration has taken a similar posture in other major immigration cases, convincing the court to cancel hearings on cases challenging former President Trump’s border wall and his changes to the asylum process.

It has already mandated a review of the public charge rule by the Department of Homeland Security in an early February executive order.

The rule has already been tied up in litigation for years, with the Supreme Court previously setting aside other lower court injunctions freezing it.

“Immigrant families can now access life-saving health care, food, and housing assistance for which they are eligible without fear that they will lose the chance to obtain lawful permanent residence, because the actions today mean that the harmful Trump public charge rule will again be blocked,” the Legal Aid Society, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. and others who had challenged the rule said in a release Tuesday.

“The Trump rule erected an invisible wall in the form of a wealth test that discriminated against people on the basis of race as a condition for regularizing their immigration status. …And because of the public charge rule, immigrant families have been living in fear of using essential benefits like healthcare, despite serving as frontline workers who have been among those hardest hit by COVID-19.”

While critics say the rule has blocked those who may qualify for food stamps or other social safety nets, the Trump administration argued it was in the best interest of the United States to ensure immigrants could be self-sufficient.

Updated at 3:07 p.m.