Today, The Legal Aid Society achieved a major victory for immigrant communities across our country. The federal court blocked the Trump Administration’s new “public charge” rule, which was scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday, October 15, 2019. If enacted, the rule change would prevent noncitizens from obtaining family-based adjustment of status because of their receipt of housing and other lawful benefits.

In his decision, Judge George B. Daniels wrote:

“The Rule is simply a new agency policy of exclusion in search of a justification. It is repugnant to the American Dream of the opportunity for prosperity and success through hard work and upward mobility. Immigrants have always come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their posterity. With or without help, most succeed.”

“The Legal Aid Society is relieved by this preliminary result, which will protect plaintiffs, our clients, and low-income and disabled immigrants across the nation while we seek permanent relief from this unlawful, anti-family, and racist rule,” said Janet Sabel, CEO and Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society. “We hope the court’s decision sends a message to DHS to withdraw this unlawful rule, and to the Department of Justice to abandon its plans to adopt a similar rule attacking immigrants in the deportation context.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights, The Legal Aid Society, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Make the Road New York, African Services Committee, Asian American Federation, Catholic Charities Community Services, and Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC). New York State Attorney General Letitia James, joined by the States of Connecticut and Vermont and the City of New York, filed a separate lawsuit challenging the rule. Both lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.

Read the decision here.
Read the order here.