Mamdani, James suing to stop Trump from denying green cards to public benefits recipients

New York is suing to stop an imminent Trump administration rule to deny green cards to noncitizens who use welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, school lunch programs or other public benefits.

The lawsuits, filed separately by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's and state Attorney General Letitia James' lawyers, seek similar outcomes: to immediately halt the rule before it takes effect Friday, and to ultimately stop it for good. The rule also would apply to parents of citizen children who get public benefits, allowing immigration officers to deny green cards to the parents.

"People could die as a result of these changes," Mamdani said Monday at a news conference where he was joined by James. Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and other municipalities are co-plaintiffs with the city.

Thousands of families would be affected by the rule change, according to Faiza Ali, Mamdani’s commissioner of immigrant affairs. But she said the impact would be much greater: a chilling effect on noncitizen immigrants of all types, including families of mixed immigration status, who might otherwise seek benefits such as SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

The Trump administration said the rule, covering what is called a "public charge," furthers the intent of federal law that "aliens in the United States be self-sufficient and not dependent on taxpayer-funded government benefits," as the administration put it in a policy document last month.

In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Chandler Rebel said: "Let’s 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. We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome. 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 litigation accuses the administration of violating federal law by exceeding administrative authority, acting arbitrarily and capriciously and failing to comply with public notice and comment requirements. Among the predicted harms, claims the litigation: increased premature mortality, more widespread infectious disease like tuberculosis, more homelessness, and job loss that will hurt the economy.

James said at the news conference that Congress never meant the law to apply to "individuals who apply every now and then for public assistance, because they fall on hard times. And you should not also equate public charge with dependency."

"This has nothing to do with dependency," she said.

James' lawsuit includes 21 other states and the District of Columbia. A similar rule during the first Trump term was blocked by the courts.

Mamdani said the city has already seen immigrants unenrolling from programs such as publicly funded healthcare.

"This is something that will have devastating consequences for immigrant New Yorkers, far beyond just those who it technically applies to," Mamdani said. "And a lot of the reason for that distinction is that we have seen a climate of fear for immigrants regardless of their status."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.