Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a lawsuit brought by 21 states and the District of Columbia to halt a new rule from the Department of Homeland Security that would allow officials to deny green cards to immigrants who use public benefits.
In a press release Monday, Brown said the coalition is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare this rule unlawful.
“This new rule is designed to intimidate and harm immigrant families,” Brown said. “But DHS cannot legally withhold permanent residency from people who receive benefits to which they’re lawfully entitled, like food assistance, even for a short period of time.”
The new rule would allow officials to count any past use of benefits like food stamps, or any future need for benefits like disability assistance, against the applicant.
According to Brown, the lawsuit argues that the new rule will ultimately strain public resources when families leave public benefits like government healthcare and inevitably end up in emergency rooms when they need medical care.
Brown also said the impacts could extend to education, as schools may struggle to achieve automatic recertification if their SNAP and Medicaid enrollment drops below thresholds, leading to communities of children losing access to free or price-reduced meals at school.
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