- On Wednesday, the Trump Administration returned to its assaults on vulnerable immigrants by proposing to revoke the Biden Administration’s Public Charge rule. As a refresher, the US has long required that immigrants not be primarily dependent on the government for subsistence and has used the public charge analysis to make this determination, usually when adjudicating green card applications. For decades, this analysis has focused on two factors, dependence on cash assistance programs (such as Supplemental Security Income or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and long-term institutionalization at government expense.
The first Trump Administration had attempted to drastically change the system, both making it more difficult for many to obtain a green card and scaring many, including US citizen family members, away from accessing needed government services. Organizations and everyday citizens found these proposed regulations antithetical to our laws and our values, and over 6,000 Massachusetts residents and organizations submitted comments in opposition. Those comments, and comments from thousands of others across the country, helped to provide the legal and factual basis to file suit and block the proposed regulations long enough for the Biden Administration to drop them and propose their own regulations which effectively codified prior policies.
Now, the Trump Administration is attempting to erase the Biden era rule and replace it with nothing but an intention to possibly issue guidance in the future. This is already sowing chaos and confusion in our communities and no one knows what criteria will actually apply to them in the near future. More concerning, it opens the door to the administration issuing new guidance outside the normal regulatory process with little transparency or oversight. It is important for our communities to know that nothing has changed yet, and that the same coalitions that worked hard to block Trump’s Public Charge rule last time have already been hard at work preparing for this since last year’s election. We have until December 19th to submit comments, and MIRA encourages everyone concerned about this proposed rule to submit comments through the Federal Register by this deadline. MIRA expects to have model comments to share soon after Thanksgiving and will also be drafting our own comments for others to sign on to. Stay tuned, early December will be busy!
- Meanwhile, the administration continues its heavy-handed enforcement tactics across the country. The most recent targets have been in North Carolina, where CBP agents have arrested over 250 people. The operation, which started in Charlotte over the weekend, has spread to Raleigh by Tuesday. CBP operations are then expected to shift to New Orleans in the next couple of weeks.
- On Monday, a federal court rejected a Trump Administration lawsuit seeking access to courts in New York state. A 2020 state law prohibits federal immigration agents from making arrests at courthouses, including those who are coming and going from state courthouses. In rejecting the lawsuit, the court found that the state has a constitutionally protected right not to participate in federal immigration enforcement.
- News agencies are slowly discovering more and more about the expanding surveillance state created by DHS. ICE has recently been demonstrating a phone app that can be used as a license plate reader that creates a massive database tracking where individual cars has been spotted. This data can then be combined with other information such as driver’s license data, marriage records, voter registration, and other personal information. CBP has also been increasing their use of license plate readers, tracking cars to detect, what they deem to be, suspicious movements then contacting local authorities to make traffic stops based on that information. While most of the CBP activity has been confined to states along the southern border, it has also been used in and around northern cities such as Chicago and Detroit.