{"id":346704,"date":"2026-09-14T21:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:20:14","slug":"mamdani-and-ny-ag-letitia-james-suing-trump-over-visa-denials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346704\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani and NY AG Letitia James suing Trump over visa denials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York and more than a dozen other Democratic-led states filed suit Monday to block<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/16\/us-news\/trump-admin-revives-rule-that-could-deny-green-cards-to-immigrants-who-use-public-benefits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> the Trump administration from allowing federal officials<\/a> to broadly deny green cards based on an immigrant\u2019s welfare status.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses the feds of\u00a0unlawfully expanding the definition of the \u201cpublic charge\u201d rule \u2014 which\u00a0allows\u00a0immigration officials\u00a0to consider whether an applicant for a visa or green card would primarily depend on\u00a0taxpayer-funded benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHardworking families should not be forced to go without the support they need because they fear asking for assistance will get them deported,\u201d said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the coalition of 22 states and Washington, DC, to challenge the change.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40811131\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-speaks-141089947.jpg\" alt=\"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking at a press conference next to Attorney General Letitia James.\" class=\"wp-image-40811131\"\/>New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference at City Hall in Manhattan, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026.  Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40811164\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ny-state-attorney-general-letitia-141090491.jpg\" alt=\"New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaking at a press conference with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.\" class=\"wp-image-40811164\"\/>Mamdani and NY Attorney General Letitia James filed a joint lawsuit against President Donald Trump\u2019s administration. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis rule preys on that fear and counts on families forfeiting the food assistance, health care coverage, and other public benefits to which they are legally entitled,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration filed a separate suit with a coalition of other Democratic local governments, including Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco. The filing argues that considering any\u00a0means-tested or income-based benefit eligibility\u00a0was discriminatory and subjective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to,\u201d Hizzoner said. \u201cThat fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting. Families who\u00a0remain\u00a0fully eligible for benefits will feel a chilling effect, and all New Yorkers will pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Trump\u2019s admin announced the new rule in July and it is set to go into effect on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>A similar rule change was attempted during Trump\u2019s first term, but it was held up in court for years until President Joe Biden took over the White House and ended the policy push.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York and more than a dozen other Democratic-led states filed suit Monday to block the Trump administration&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,3100,398,57,9,24,55,54,56,1069,58,82],"class_list":["post-346704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-donald-trump","tag-lawsuit","tag-letitia-james","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-trump","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}