Chinanews.com, February 26th. According to the United States "World Daily", the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will implement the "Final Rule of Inadmissibility on the Grounds of" Public Burden "from February 24th. The applicant's age, health status, income, education, and skills will determine whether it will become a "public burden" in the future to determine whether to apply for a green card. The New York Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs held a press conference on the 24th, saying that the new "public burden" regulations have caused a large number of low-income residents to give up benefits, and urged citizens not to give up benefits easily, and to contact "ActionNYC" for help if necessary.
The government announced in 2018 that it would change the definition of "public burden" to include benefits such as Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, and Food Stamps (SNAP). "Public burden", if the immigrant received more than one public benefit for more than 12 months (accumulated different benefits) within 36 months before applying for a green card, it will be difficult to obtain a green card.
Although the multi-state joint lawsuit has since been filed, the Federal Supreme Court has ruled out the new rules by five votes in favor and four against.
Bitta Mostofi, director of the Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, said that the new rules have caused a large number of non-citizens to abandon benefits, and even the number of registered special nutrition supplement programs (WICs) for mothers, babies and children not affected by the new rules has dropped significantly.
The data shows that from January 2017 to June 2019, the number of non-citizen registrations of WIC's top ten non-citizen residents in the city has dropped by nearly 19%, compared with the ten most non-citizen residents in the city. In the postal code, the number of WIC registrations dropped by only 5.7%; Mostofi said that the decrease in registrations was due to concerns of immigrant communities about the implementation of the new "public burden" regulations.
Steven Banks, director of the Municipal Social Service Bureau, said that from January 2017 to January 2019, the number of people using food stamps in the city also declined. Among them, the number of non-citizens applying for food stamps fell by 15%, and citizens only declined. 1%.
Mostofi urges citizens not to give up benefits easily, if in doubt, call "ActionNYC" telephone consultation. She said that lawsuits against the new rules are still ongoing and will be heard in the Second Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on March 2, hoping to obtain a court injunction. (He Zhaoyu)