Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition Releases Explainer on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Public Charge Memo, Affirms Housing is NOT Considered in Public Charge Test

By Kayla Blackwell, NLIHC Housing Policy Analyst and Sarita Kelkar, NLIHC Policy Intern  

On Thursday, September 4, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a policy memorandum to USCIS officers, “Reaffirming Guidance on Public Charge Inadmissibility Determinations." However, the memo does not change which benefits are included in a public charge test. The Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) Coalition created an explainer with three key takeaways, providing more information about the policy memorandum with some additional context.  

The “public charge” test is one part of an evaluation conducted by the federal government in U.S. immigration policy. If an individual is likely to depend on government benefits as their main source of support and become a “public charge”, the individual can be denied a green card or admission to the U.S.—excluding permanent residents applying to become U.S. citizens. Alongside individual information such as health, income, and family size, officials look to individuals’ use of cash assistance in determining public charge status. Prior to 2019, almost all non-cash government benefits, such as Medicaid and housing benefits, were excluded from the public charge consideration. A harmful rule issued under the Trump Administration in 2019 (and that is no longer in effect) caused a significant drop in enrollment in programs such as government health care and pandemic aid, undermining the response to the pandemic and widening economic and health disparities. NLIHC joined more than 1,000 organizations in signing on to a public charge comment letter led by the Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) campaign (see Memo 4/25/2022).  

The first Trump Administration attempted to expand inadmissibility in 2019, increasing the number of benefits included in the public charge test. The Biden Administration ceased implementation of the Trump public charge rule in 2021 making change—for example to eliminate consideration of an individual’s public housing, Medicaid, and SNAP benefits—and issued a final rule in 2022. While USCIS’s recent memo reintroduces some of the rhetoric from the first Trump Administration, PIF’s explainer critically affirms the hold of the Biden Administration’s public charge rule.   

Access the explainer here.