New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed separate lawsuits Monday challenging a Trump administration rule that expands the “public charge” test used to deny green cards and visas to immigrants deemed likely to rely on public benefits.
Why it matters: The rule takes effect Sept. 18 and could reshape how millions of immigrant families weigh access to health care and other safety-net programs against their own green-card prospects, Fox News reports — escalating the broader fight between blue-state leaders and the administration over immigration enforcement.
Driving the news:
An August 2026 Department of Homeland Security guidance expands the “totality of circumstances” test immigration officers use to judge whether a green-card applicant is likely to become a public charge — weighing age, health, family status, finances and education, per the Daily Signal.
Mamdani leads a coalition of plaintiffs that includes Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Seattle, King County, Washington state and the Public Rights Project; James filed a separate suit on New York's behalf.
The expanded rule is set to take effect Sept. 18, 2026, Fox News notes.
The case has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
By the numbers:
Up to 4 million people could unenroll from public healthcare programs out of fear of jeopardizing their immigration status, the Daily Signal reports, citing the plaintiffs’ filings.
Roughly 1.8 million of those potentially affected are children, per the same estimate.
What they’re saying: Mamdani, at a press conference, said: “If you are a citizen, or an individual seeking humanitarian relief like asylum, these changes will not affect you. The new public charge rule not only sweeps aside more than a century of established law, it is intentionally vague as a means of creating uncertainty and fear to isolate immigrant New Yorkers.” He added, per the Daily Signal: “People could die” and “cruelty is not how we choose to govern.” A DHS spokesperson countered that the lawsuits amount to sanctuary jurisdictions engaged in “ideological contortion” to justify what the spokesperson called the “defrauding of the American taxpayer,” the Daily Signal reported.
The other side: The Gateway Pundit took a far more skeptical view of the lawsuit, casting Mamdani’s “people could die” warning as overheated and arguing the rule does nothing to citizens or asylum seekers — by Mamdani’s own admission — while simply asking non-citizens seeking permanent status to show they won’t be a long-term drain on taxpayer-funded programs.
What’s next: The rule takes effect Sept. 18 unless a court intervenes first; the litigation continues in the Southern District of New York, with immigration attorneys expecting a chilling effect on benefit enrollment regardless of how the suits are ultimately decided.
The bottom line: The rule turns reliance on programs like Medicaid and food assistance into a potential immigration liability, and blue-city leaders are racing the clock to get a court to block it before Thursday's deadline.
Go deeper: