News Outlets Obtain Draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds

March 28, 2018

According to a draft of the proposal obtained by The Washington Post, immigration caseworkers would be required to consider a much broader range of factors when determining whether immigrants or their U.S.-citizen children are using public benefits or may be likely to do so. In addition to forms of cash welfare assistance already used in such cases, it would add the "non-cash" benefits used by more than one-fifth of the U.S. population, both foreign- and native-born. DHS officials said the proposal is not yet final, but the administration is eager to ensure "that foreign nationals seeking to enter or remain in the U.S are self-sufficient." Additionally, President Trump's proposal would penalize immigrants who use tax credits and other benefits.

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February 8, 2018

DHS has drafted a notice of proposed rulemaking, seen by Reuters and Vox, that would allow immigration officers to scrutinize a potential immigrant's use of certain taxpayer-funded public benefits to determine if they could become a public burden. These taxpayer-funded public benefits include a broad array of local, state, and federal social services to which these families are legally entitled, including enrolling their U.S.-born children in Head Start or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

This document, as obtained by Vox, includes pages 1-2 of the document, and the regulatory text (starting at page 228); it does not include the 225-page preamble originally included with the draft.

Cite as AILA Doc. No. 18020918.