The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security’s new public charge rule will take effect Sept. 18, 2026.

The rule broadens what can be considered in an immigration officer’s evaluation review to deny or allow an applicant to be approved for a green card.

Under the new rule, non-citizens can be denied permanent residency or admission into the United States if the government determines they are likely to be a ‘public charge.’

This means DHS will consider if an applicant or their family’s use of health or social service programs makes them a “public charge.”

The New York Immigration Coalition tells Spectrum News 1 right now, it’s difficult to determine how wide the impact will be in New York because it’s looking at the whole picture and some of the programs overlap.

The social programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, Section 8, WIC, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP.

The coalition anticipates one of the places New York can expect to see the biggest impact is in emergency rooms. Where people impacted by this change may not seek preventative or medical care and will have to visit emergency rooms more frequently when they have health issues.

Also, with federal cuts from H.R.1, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, some places are already seeing medical care options dwindle.

“We have to look at all of the benefit programs,” said Carlos Arnao, director of healthy communities at the New York Immigration Coalition. “There will be overlap, but you would have to look at each of those. Determine if the applicant for that program is a child which could then give you an estimate as to how many people in that household may or may not have status. Then from there, you have to take another estimate as to how many would dis-enroll.”

The coalition says, however, the people who will more than likely bear the heaviest brunt from this change are those who are experiencing a change in their status.

The public charge rule won’t have much of a barring on undocumented folks,” said Arnao. “It’s going to have a significant impact on citizens, children and it’s going to have a big impact on people that are adjusting their status who are for the first time applying for a green card.”

With two months until this new rule takes effect, the coalition says the state has that amount of time to determine how it wants to handle this.