type: timeline_event
On November 18, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under Director Joseph Edlow, published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register (90 FR 52168-52224, Docket No. USCIS-2025-0304) to rescind the Biden administration's 2022 public charge rule and reinstate expanded criteria for denying green cards and visas to immigrants. The 140-page proposal would allow immigration officers to consider any use of means-tested public benefits—including SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, Medicare, housing assistance, and transportation vouchers—when determining whether an immigrant is likely to become a "public charge." This dramatically expands beyond the previous standard of cash assistance and long-term institutionalization. The rule targets the 27% of the U.S. population comprising immigrant families (approximately half of whom are U.S. citizens, mostly children) and would enable denials based on personal characteristics like obesity and even family members' use of benefits. DHS acknowledged the policy could lead to worse health outcomes, including increased obesity and communicable diseases, while claiming it would save $90 billion over a decade through program disenrollment. Immigration advocates immediately condemned the proposal: Adriana Cadenas, executive director of the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition, stated "This dangerous proposal puts the nation's health and economic wellbeing at risk" and noted it "deters lawfully present immigrants and U.S. citizens from seeking health care and help they need and qualify for under federal law." Research shows that during the first Trump administration's 2020 public charge rule, about 25% of adults in mixed-status families avoided public benefits due to green card concerns, creating a widespread "chilling effect" where millions of lawfully present immigrants and U.S. citizens avoided seeking benefits for which they legally qualified. The rule represents a return to Stephen Miller's immigration agenda of creating a wealth test for immigration, forcing families to choose between essential benefits and immigration status. The 30-day comment period closes December 19, 2025, with legal challenges expected.