Washington, DC - Today’s final “public charge” rule is part of a sweeping and ongoing government-wide assault on immigrants. This latest attack is cruelly designed to do the greatest harm to low-income immigrants and their children by severely restricting their ability to access critical and life-saving benefits, including food, health and housing assistance.
The public charge rule puts low-income immigrants in an impossible bind of having to choose between accessing the supports they need to live safe and healthy lives or protecting their immigration status. Children, including U.S. citizen children, will be among those most harmed. As low-income immigrant families lose access to needed housing assistance, they will face increased risk of eviction and homelessness, with tremendous personal and societal costs from the poorer health, lowered educational attainment and lessened lifetime earnings that will result.
The Trump administration’s new regulation targets immigrants of color and will widen racial disparities in everything from infant mortality to housing stability. Immigrants already face significant barriers to securing affordable homes, from racism and discrimination to language or education barriers. The public charge rule will exacerbate these challenges and put affordable homes further out of reach.
This radical change to decades of immigration policy is unconscionable, cruel, and unacceptable. NLIHC will work closely with our immigration, health, food security, and housing partners, as well as leaders in Congress, to stop this rule from being implemented before it can do the profound harm that it threatens to low-income immigrants and their communities.
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About NLIHC: Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest income in the United States have affordable and decent homes.