The White House welcomed an appeals court decision allowing a plan to expand rules that would disqualify immigrants who use government assistance programs from obtaining permanent legal status, but it said its hands are tied due to injunctions in other courts.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday lifted two district court injunctions by judges in Spokane, Washington, and Oakland, California, filed over the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plan to block immigrants who used government benefits, otherwise known as people deemed a “public charge.”
“The Ninth Circuit has rightly recognized the administration’s authority to adopt an interpretation of the ‘public charge’ restriction more faithful to and consistent with the scope of the statute passed by Congress,” the White House press secretary said in a statement Friday.
Although the decision represents a victory for the Trump administration, two other injunctions remain in cases passing through courts in Maryland and New York City.
“Unfortunately, as a practical matter, the ruling has accomplished nothing to vindicate the rule of law due to the destructive practice of individual district judges taking over national policy issues by issuing nationwide injunctions,” the press secretary said. “In practical effect, nationwide injunctions give any district judge the power to tell a panel of a federal court of appeals that its ruling does not matter and that it cannot affect the actual implementation of the law.”
The Department of Homeland Security published a rule in the Federal Register in August that would have expanded in October the 1999 definition of a “public charge” to include immigrants who had used U.S. government benefits such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The rule stated that immigrants applying for legal permanent residency, a step before applying for citizenship, would be judged based on additional types of assistance they have accepted from the federal government for at least 12 months in any 36-month period. The test already included the use of cash benefits, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The move would affect about 400,000 applicants annually, shrinking the pool of people legally attempting to come to the United States.
Then-acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli said in August that the administration was “reinforcing the ideals of our self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America.”
However, a slew of state and organizations sued, saying the expansion discriminated against the poor and others.
