DHS rules effective September 18 letting immigration officers weigh housing assistance and other non-cash benefits in public-charge determinations, challenged by state and local coalitions in the Southern District of New York.
The DHS public-charge rule took effect Friday, September 18, with no publicly reported court order blocking it as of publication. Immigration officers may now weigh applicants' use of means-tested benefits — including federal housing assistance, SNAP, WIC and Medicaid — in green-card adjudications for applications filed on or after that date. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, sued in federal court in Manhattan on September 14 to block the rule.
The states' complaint says that for benefits received before September 18, 2026, officers will only consider public cash assistance for income maintenance.
Stateline · on public-charge rules counting housing assistance against immigration applicants
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, and separately a coalition of six cities and counties including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, King County, and Santa Clara County, filed lawsuits September 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against DHS and USCIS over rules letting immigration officers count enrollment in public benefits, including housing assistance, as a "public charge" ground for inadmissibility. The rules rescind a 2022 policy that excluded non-cash benefits and take effect Friday, September 18. The city coalition's suit argues roughly 1.3 million people, including 600,000 children, could lose care and coverage in those jurisdictions.
Under the 2022 policy now rescinded, non-cash benefits such as housing assistance were excluded from public-charge consideration.