Coalition of states suing Trump administration over immigration rule change

Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee on Sep 14, 2026

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A coalition of states Monday is suing to block the Trump administration from implementing a new rule that would make it easier to deny legal residency to immigrants deemed likely to use public assistance.

The lawsuit, filed Monday morning in federal court in New York, argued that the administration exceeded its authority by attempting to rewrite more than 140 years of immigration law. The new rule is set to take effect Friday, and it was unclear whether the lawsuit would delay its implementation.

The rule has drawn criticism from opponents who say it could cause some families to choose between using safety net programs and risking rejection of their applications for green cards. The Department of Homeland Security, which announced the change in July, estimated that the new rule could lead about 950,000 people to disenroll from or forgo enrollment in public benefits programs.

“No family should have to choose between accessing healthcare and nutrition assistance today — or protecting their pathway to a green card tomorrow,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who joined the lawsuit, said in a news release Monday morning.

The proposed rule change centers on “public charge,” a term dating to the Immigration Act of 1882 that allows the government to deny a green card to a person likely to become primarily dependent on the government for assistance. Immigration officers historically have weighed only cash benefits under this category, but the Trump administration’s change would broaden what officers could consider.

During Trump’s first term, the federal government expanded the categories of benefits that could be considered, including food stamps and Medicaid. The Biden administration later revoked that rule and adopted a policy excluding noncash benefits from consideration.

In its July announcement, DHS argued that the Biden rule “straitjackets” immigration officers by limiting which public benefits they can consider. The agency argued that officers will now be “empowered to assess all pertinent facts on a case-by-case basis for each applicant.”

“The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law and protecting American taxpayers from subsidizing aliens who may become dependent on public benefits,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler in July.

The “public charge” rule change is among several moves by the Trump administration to crack down on both lawful and unlawful immigration. Among other changes, the administration has tightened asylum eligibility at the border, lowered the annual cap on refugees allowed into the country and ended temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants nationally.

Monday’s lawsuit included a coalition of 21 states, including California, New York, Maryland, Nevada and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. California and other states also sued over the first Trump administration’s public charge rule.

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