{"id":464066,"date":"2026-09-15T03:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464066\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T03:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T03:40:15","slug":"california-sues-trump-administration-over-change-to-green-card-rules-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464066\/","title":{"rendered":"California sues Trump administration over change to green card rules \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

California and 21 other states filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday, seeking to stop a rule change that expands who can be denied a green card<\/a> to include broad swaths of people who have used or may use public benefits like food or healthcare assistance.<\/p>\n

Back in July, the Trump administration announced the change to expand who can be considered a \u201cpublic charge,” someone who depends on government assistance.<\/p>\n

Immigration attorney Narciso Cruz said before the change, that was not a very common reason for denial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would look at a limited, limited analysis,\u201d Cruz said, \u201cNumber one: the use of cash welfare, cash assistance, and number two: long-term institutional care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old analysis was to suggest that if you’re going into an almshouse, so it’s sort of today’s equivalent of an institutionalized setting where all your needs are getting taken care of basically permanently for, you know, forever more going forward for the rest of your life, that would be considered a public charge,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference to announce the lawsuit Monday.<\/p>\n

But the updated guidance, set to take effect Friday, says it would allow immigration officers to deny green cards for \u201cany and all benefits,\u201d which could include things like free school lunches or state-provided health insurance for the applicant or any dependents, including U.S. citizen children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about that: The administration wants to punish immigrant families for using benefits that their children are legally entitled to,\u201d Bonta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a cruel policy designed to force immigrant families to forego health care and food assistance programs out of fear that using them could jeopardize their immigration status,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get this straight, sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs,\u201d a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement on the lawsuit, adding, \u201cWe\u2019re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This is the ideological contortion required by left-wing leaders to justify their defrauding of the American taxpayer at the hands of illegal criminals,” the statement continues. “DHS has heard for months from the trusted journalists at CNN and others that illegal aliens weren\u2019t using these very same welfare programs. So, which is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rule also allows for green card denials based on the potential benefits a person may receive in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s also looking at the age of the immigrant, the current health status of the immigrant, the level of education, the job skills or the type of education or training this individual has had in the past,\u201d Cruz said, adding, \u201cThis is left to the discretion of the officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the rule change is already having an impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a lot of people know exactly whether or not they fall under public charge,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWhat we’re seeing is less people wanting to apply for green cards, less people wanting to apply for public benefits. It\u2019s creating fear and confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Trump administration implemented a similar rule in 2019, which was struck down by the courts following a lawsuit, and reversed under President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Bonta said this is the 92nd lawsuit California has filed against the federal government in the 86 weeks since President Trump returned to office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California and 21 other states filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday, seeking to stop a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,536,2871,1695],"class_list":["post-464066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-ice","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}