Feds to Consider Reliance on Public Aid in Green Card Decisions: What to Know

Federal officials will consider an immigrant’s reliance on government assistance programs when determining whether to issue permanent residency—also known as a green card—beginning on Sept. 18.

Under the new rule, immigrants can be considered a public charge if they receive one or more means-tested public benefits, such as food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance.

That can disqualify an immigrant for permanent residency. However, that’s not an automatic outcome. The receipt of public benefits is just “one consideration in the totality of the circumstances,” according to the rule.

Other pertinent facts include income, assets, skills, health, and broader benefits.

“The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law and protecting American taxpayers from subsidizing aliens who may become dependent on public benefits,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement on July 16.

The new rule could deter immigrants who might rely on government assistance from entering or remaining in the United States. At the same time, immigrants who choose to remain in the country might disenroll from or forgo public benefit programs. This could include U.S. citizens in households containing noncitizens.

Officials aren’t required to consider the use of public benefits by family members of immigrants when determining eligibility for a green card. But if it is proven that an immigrant cannot support their family based on his or her own income, officers could consider that, the Department of Homeland Security explained.

Here is what to know about public benefit dependence and impacts on immigrant households.

Millions of Households, Billions of Dollars

The foreign-born population in the United States reached 50.2 million in 2024. That’s nearly 15 percent of the total U.S. population, the highest share since 1890.

Lawful immigrants accounted for nearly three-quarters of that total, including naturalized citizens (46 percent), lawful permanent residents (23 percent), and nonimmigrants (4 percent). The rest (27 percent) were illegal immigrants, according to 2023 data from the Pew Research Center.

That translates to 10.7 million immigrant households and another 16 million mixed-status households, containing both immigrant and U.S.-born members, according to the Brookings Institution. Both types of households would be considered when applying the new rule.

Healthcare research group KFF estimated that 4 million Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees could forgo coverage due to fear of being denied permanent residency.

The Department of Homeland Security said that the new rule could result in a $13 billion annual reduction in federal and state spending due to immigrant households disenrolling from government programs.

Individual Versus Household Participation

Assessments of the degree to which immigrants rely on public assistance vary widely depending on the measurement.

For example, one study showed that the number of lawful immigrants using public aid is lower when the assessment is made for the individuals themselves as opposed to all members of the household in which they live, according to a July 24 report from Brookings Institution. Free or reduced-price school lunches were an exception to that.

However, when counting all benefits received by households containing noncitizens, participation in public programs matches or exceeds that of households containing all U.S. citizens, according to Brookings.

About half of the households that include a legal immigrant participated in at least one government program in 2024. Food programs, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit had the highest rates of immigrant participation. That compares to 37 percent for U.S.-born households. Those numbers are from a February report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

Brookings found that when public assistance programs were used by mixed households—containing legal immigrants and U.S.-born citizens—the benefits most often went to U.S.-born children.

Immigrants can receive benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children. That’s one reason barring immigrants themselves from using welfare programs has only a modest impact on public spending, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

The new rule could resolve the statutory blind spot as officers might factor total household welfare receipts into an immigrant’s financial dependency evaluation when determining green card eligibility.

However, the rule is likely to be challenged in court, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It will undoubtedly lead people—including parents with U.S. citizen children—to forgo health coverage, food assistance, and other important benefits they need and qualify for,” the group said in a July 27 statement.

Limited Impacts on Unauthorized Population

While the new rule could scale down the number of immigrants using public benefits, it is ineffective at directly deterring most illegal immigrants when they are not eligible to seek permanent residency.

An illegal immigrant is a foreign-born person who enters or lives in the United States without official government permission or legal status.

Such immigrants can generally use eligible benefits safely, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

More than 60 percent of illegal immigrants enroll in welfare programs, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. That’s higher than the approximately 51 percent enrollment of lawful residents.

Immigrants without legal residency can legally apply for benefits for their U.S.-born children, such as free or reduced-price school meals and food benefits through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

An illegal immigrant family could also live in subsidized housing or public housing if it contains U.S.-born children, Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies told The Epoch Times.

State-funded programs also may extend coverage to illegal aliens.

While federal law bars illegal immigrants from receiving federal funding, state governments can choose to provide aid using state funds.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. provide medical coverage to children and pregnant women regardless of their immigration status.

California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C., offer medical coverage to illegal immigrant adults and seniors.

Additionally, illegal immigrants with a Social Security number or work authorization can collect the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. 

There are over 3 million illegal immigrants in the United States with valid Social Security numbers, according to Camarota’s estimate. These include parolees, people with Temporary Protected Status, and individuals with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Those programs allow some immigrants to stay in the United States temporarily, typically for humanitarian reasons, such as war or natural disasters.

“Technically, these individuals are still in the United States illegally,” Camarota said, as they are not formally admitted under U.S. immigration law.

Trump Administration Efforts

The Trump administration tightened immigration rules by phasing out protected status for nations no longer deemed unstable.

With the Supreme Court’s approval, Temporary Protected Status for Yemen, Haiti, and Syria was terminated in July. Venezuela’s protected status ended in 2025.

Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also moved to end protection for Burma, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, though those decisions remain locked in legal battle.

In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to exclude the children of illegal immigrants and temporary visitors from U.S. citizenship at birth. However, the birthright order was blocked by federal courts shortly after issuance, and officially voided when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional on June 30.

On July 27, the Trump administration missed the deadline to file a rehearing in the birthright citizenship case.

Illegal Immigrants

A total of 14 million illegal aliens lived in the United States in 2023, according to a Pew Research Center estimate.

More than half were from Mexico and other Southern American countries, and most of them resided in California and Texas.

The illegal immigrant population reached a new peak of 15.8 million in mid-2024, the Migration Policy Institute estimated.

About 40 percent of illegal immigrants held some protection, such as parole, Temporary Protected Status, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Migration Policy Institute reported.

The Biden administration had released an estimated 2.8 million parolees into the country, which Camarota called “a profound distortion of the intent of the program,” during his 2025 testimony in the House of Representatives. Those programs were designed to permit entry for a small number of people on a case-by-case basis, he said.

The Temporary Protected Status program shielded nearly 1.3 million individuals from 17 countries from deportation, most of them from Venezuela, Haiti, and El Salvador.

Nearly half a million illegal immigrants brought to the United States as minors were allowed to remain under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status as of 2025, with more than 80 percent from Mexico.