New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood at City Hall on Monday and announced that his city is suing the federal government to preserve immigrants’ access to Medicaid and food stamps. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a companion suit the same afternoon, joined by 21 other states and the District of Columbia. Both cases ask a federal judge to block a Trump administration rule, set to take effect this Friday, that lets immigration officers weigh an applicant’s use of public benefits when deciding whether to grant a green card. Mamdani called the rule cruel and unlawful. I call it common sense.

Here’s what the mayor of America’s largest city, a self-described “democratic socialist,” is actually arguing in federal court: that the U.S. government has no business asking whether a new immigrant can support themself before handing them a green card. That’s not a legal theory. That’s a mission statement.