(NEW YORK) — More than 125 congressional Democrats urged the Trump administration to withdraw a proposed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule that could allow officials to deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits such as Medicaid or food stamps.
The lawmakers, led by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the proposal would widen the government’s public charge test and deter families from seeking health care and nutrition support.
“This proposal punishes families for caring for their children. It would scare parents away from health care, food assistance, and early education that U.S. citizen children are legally entitled to, putting kids at risk and destabilizing entire communities,” Espaillat said.
Democrats said the rule would create a “massive chilling effect,” particularly for households with U.S. citizen children, by discouraging participation in programs tied to health, nutrition, childcare and education.
DHS published the proposed rule in November 2025, setting out changes that would rescind the 2022 Biden-era public charge regulations.
Under the 2022 approach, a “public charge” was defined as someone “primarily dependent” on government aid, mainly cash assistance or nursing home care.
The new proposal would eliminate that 2022 definition and remove limits on considering non-cash benefits such as Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, and others.
The proposed changes would also grant immigration officers broader discretion to evaluate the “totality of the circumstances,” including past or likely future use of benefits, family members’ usage, health conditions, income, education, and more.
Unlike prior limits, the proposal would not use a fixed threshold like the 12-month/36-month limit described by Democrats in their warning about the plan.
Lawmakers argued the proposed rule would penalize immigrants for relying on programs that were used lawfully at the time, even when no immigration consequences were stated.
They warned that the approach could reach people Congress exempted, including refugees, domestic violence survivors, and abused children.
The proposal comes amid other 2025 actions by President Donald J. Trump’s administration that Democrats and analysts have linked to stricter screening of immigrants’ use of benefits.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a Policy Memorandum on September 4, 2025, reaffirming strict public charge reviews for Form I-485 green card applicants based on statutory totality-of-circumstances discretion.
The proposed DHS rule also follows the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBB), signed by President Donald J. Trump on July 4, 2025, which restricted SNAP eligibility for non-qualifying aliens effective immediately.
Democrats framed the public charge proposal as a step that would widen the net of what can be weighed against an applicant.
They said the rule would allow officials to consider non-cash benefits more fully and would extend scrutiny beyond the narrow 2022 focus on cash aid and long-term institutional care.
The lawmakers contrasted the Biden administration’s 2022 limits, which narrowed consideration to cash assistance and long-term care, with earlier Trump-era expansions issued in 2019.
In calling for the new proposal to be withdrawn, Democrats said the rule would discourage eligible families from using programs even when U.S. citizen children qualify for help.
They argued the fear would spread well beyond green card applicants, pushing families to avoid health coverage and nutrition support even when legally entitled to enroll.
Espaillat’s office and other Democrats focused on the effect on children in mixed-status families, saying the harm would fall heaviest on U.S. citizen children.
They warned that parents could skip doctor visits, drop nutrition benefits, or avoid early education support, not because they are ineligible, but because they fear a future immigration penalty.
By removing limits on the use of Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP and other non-cash benefits, Democrats said the proposed DHS rule would expand the types of assistance that could be weighed in a public charge assessment.
They said the rule’s “totality of the circumstances” approach would allow adjudicators to consider multiple factors at once, including whether benefits were used in the past or might be used in the future.
That broader discretion, they argued, would make outcomes harder to predict for families trying to decide whether to seek assistance.
The lawmakers also warned that the proposal could penalize immigrants based on health conditions, and that it could bring scrutiny to family members’ benefit use as part of an applicant’s assessment.
Advocates, Democrats said, have predicted chaos and expanded denials, including denials based on obesity, and lawsuits similar to past legal challenges.
The proposal remained at the proposed stage as of late 2025, with no finalization date specified.
Analysts have pointed to signs that fear around immigration enforcement and benefits use can change behavior even before rules take effect.
KFF analysis noted prior Trump policies already increased immigrants avoiding programs due to fears.
The analysis also cited 2025 surveys showing rising disenrollment from Medicaid/CHIP amid data-sharing with ICE.
Democrats said those patterns make the proposed DHS rule particularly likely to produce a chilling effect, because families may respond to uncertainty by exiting programs quickly.
They argued that the public charge issue, by design, puts families in a bind: accept Medicaid or food stamps for a child’s health and nutrition needs, or avoid help to reduce immigration risk.
The lawmakers’ letter described that tradeoff as unacceptable when the children involved are U.S. citizens who are legally entitled to assistance.
The Democrats also warned that the rule would take a broader look at immigrants’ lives under the “totality of the circumstances,” including economic and educational factors.
They said such a system, without a fixed threshold like the 12-month/36-month limit, would make it difficult for applicants and sponsors to gauge how an officer might interpret the record.
Supporters of narrower public charge standards have long argued that non-cash benefits should not be treated like cash welfare, because programs like Medicaid, CHIP and SNAP are tied to health and basic nutrition.
Democrats said the proposed rule moves in the opposite direction, by lifting limits on considering those benefits in a green card decision.
The debate comes as Trump’s administration has pursued multiple immigration and benefits-related steps in 2025.
The July 4, 2025 law restricting SNAP eligibility for non-qualifying aliens took effect immediately, and the September 4, 2025 USCIS memorandum reinforced stricter public charge reviews for Form I-485 applicants.
Against that backdrop, Democrats said the November 2025 DHS rule would broaden the government’s ability to factor Medicaid or food stamps into green card decisions, and that the result would be fear-driven exits from programs that many families use to keep children healthy and fed.
Congressional Democrats are opposing a new Trump administration proposal that expands the ‘public charge’ definition to include non-cash benefits like Medicaid and food stamps. They argue the rule penalizes families for seeking essential care and will discourage eligible U.S. citizen children from receiving health and nutrition support. The rule grants officers wide discretion to evaluate an applicant’s entire life history, causing significant legal and social concerns.
