Shriver Center Urges Supreme Court to Suspend Public Charge Rule

No family should have to make the choice between meeting their basic needs and being with their loved ones, particularly in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Shriver Center on Poverty Law, with our client Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, our co-counsel at Legal Council for Health Justice, and Sidley Austin LLP, and our co-plaintiff Cook County, has filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to suspend enforcement of the public charge rule in light of the current public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This cruel rule punishes people seeking permanent resident status in the United States, and as well as those seeking certain visas, if they use—or are deemed likely to use in the future—public supports to meet their family’s basic health, housing, and nutrition needs.

This motion before the Supreme Court follows and further supports efforts by New York State to halt the rule until the national pandemic is over or to allow the lower courts to consider a new injunction in response to the current public health emergency.

Now more than ever, no one should be deterred from seeking health care, food, or housing assistance, out of fear that they will become a public charge. 

UPDATE: On Friday April 24, 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order denying the motion to suspend enforcement of the public charge rule in light of the public health and economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court left open the possibility that a lower court could consider a request for relief from the rule during this time.

We are disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling and its failure to consider how limiting access to immigrants’ health and economic resources at any time, but especially now, is a threat to not only to our public health and economy but to our values as a nation.