November 20, 2025
Los Angeles, Calif. (Nov. 20, 2025) – The Trump administration is proposing a new “public charge” policy that would give immigration officers broader authority to deny permanent residency to immigrants lawfully present in the country who have used certain public programs, such as Medicaid, food or housing assistance.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the proposal on Wednesday to rescind current regulations regarding the administration of federal immigration law’s “public charge” provision applicable to lawfully present immigrants applying for “green cards.”
Under the current policy established in 2022 by the Biden administration, immigration officers can only consider whether green card applicants have used cash assistance or have gotten nursing home care through Medicaid.
By removing the concrete language provided by the 2022 regulations, the Trump administration proposal opens the green card review process to arbitrary denials and political bias.
Revoking the current regulation also allows DHS to reject green card applications based on obesity or any other personal characteristic the administration elects to consider.
The announcement of the proposal triggers a 30-day comment period, after which DHS can finalize, revise, or withdraw the proposal. Until the proposal is finalized, the 2022 Biden-era public charge regulation will remain in effect
“People’s health and wellbeing should always be our first priority,” said Benyamin Chao, Health & Public Benefits Policy Manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “Instead, what this proposal does is put people’s health and safety at risk. At a time when immigrant communities are under attack by this administration, this proposal would create further chaos, confusion and harm. A similar Trump public charge regulation, implemented in 2019 and later ruled illegal, created a chilling effect leading millions of immigrants and their family members to avoid seeking assistance and care that they were legally eligible to receive. We call on everyone, including state and local leaders, to speak out and make sure our congressional representatives know the deep devastation this will have on our communities. We must all act to protect immigrant families from this xenophobic and cruel proposal.”
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