Attorney General Bonta Calls on State Department to Formally Withdraw Outdated Public Charge Regulation

Applauds federal efforts to undo harmful effects of Trump-era public charge rule

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in a comment letter urging the U.S. Department of State (DOS) to formally withdraw its iteration of the Trump-era public charge regulation, which replicated the now-defunct rule previously put forward by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2019. The regulations unlawfully attempted to target immigrants and their families by turning the use of basic health, nutrition, and housing programs into barriers to lawful admission to the United States, which, as a result of the fear and confusion caused by the regulations, led to a broader chilling effect on the use of these important programs. In the comment letter, the coalition highlights the substantial harms caused by the regulations put forward by the previous administration and applauds the current federal government's efforts to rescind the subsequent DOS iteration of the public charge rule.

"It's 2022 and, unfortunately, we're still stuck cleaning up the Trump Administration's mess," said Attorney General Bonta. "When you create fear and confusion to attack some, you inevitably hurt us all. That's exactly what the Trump Administration did with its public charge regulations. During this pandemic in particular, we need to encourage people to take advantage of important public programs that help keep people healthy, housed, and fed. I applaud the Biden Administration for taking these critical steps to fully undo the now-defunct 2019 public charge regulations. Our immigrant communities matter - and, here in California, we'll continue to fight for a better future for all."

Longstanding guidance by the federal government has defined a "public charge" as a person who is primarily and permanently dependent on either public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutional long-term care at the government's expense. Under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, a noncitizen who is likely to become a public charge is generally inadmissible to the United States and ineligible to become a lawful permanent resident. The previous administration sought to expand the definition of a public charge by declaring that the use of additional government programs constitutes grounds for such a determination, including the use of healthcare through federally-funded Medi-Cal or Medicaid, nutrition and food support through CalFresh or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Section 8 housing assistance. In order to enact these changes, the federal government put forward a formal regulation through DHS and DOS then took steps to adopt a similar rule.

However, following court decisions across the country blocking the 2019 DHS rule, the federal government formally vacated it in March 2021. Given this significant change in circumstances, DOS is now taking steps to reconsider its adoption of the 2019 public charge rule, especially in light of DHS' expressed intent to develop new regulations. Importantly, the federal government's current rulemaking efforts appear to recognize that the health and safety of all of our communities are interconnected, particularly in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, the fear and confusion caused by the previous regulations hindered the states' ability to administer critical public health services and interfered with state laws and policy choices to encourage broad-based access to public programs that protect the most vulnerable communities - and, in turn, everyone - against public health threats like COVID-19.

In filing the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

A copy of the comment letter is available here. Additional information on an earlier comment letter to DHS on its current efforts to revise public charge regulations is available here.