Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its rule change allowing immigrants into the country who will be dependent on welfare, according to documents obtained by Breitbart News.
Federal immigration law has required a “public-charge” determination for immigrants, which bars them from staying in the country if they are likely to use welfare programs like food stamps, Medicaid, or government housing aid.
“The Biden Administration has demonstrated its intent not to enforce the law and to open the borders to illegal aliens who will be dependent upon welfare benefits,” a press release from Paxton’s office obtained by Breitbart News says.
Normally, immigrants provide financial proof that they would not sap taxpayer funds. The Biden administration’s rule “prevents consideration of statutorily required factors when determining whether an alien is likely to become a ‘public charge.'”
“The Biden Administration is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to take care of themselves. Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other American,” Paxton said. “I will continue to defend the rule of law and fight to ensure that the massive costs of illegal immigration don’t further burden taxpayers.”
As Breitbart News reported, studies show taxpayers are being billed about $1,600 a year per immigrant and that immigrants use 33 percent more cash welfare than American citizens. Similarly, “About 63 percent of noncitizen households use at least one form of public welfare, while only about 35 percent of native-born American households are on welfare.”
Despite that, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s Department of Homeland Security pushed its “Fair and Humane Public Charge Rule,” which the lawsuit alleges is the Biden administration seeking to “further open its borders.”
The new rule limits “public-charge” considerations to cash benefits, without regard for “in-kind” government benefits such as retirement, welfare, health, disability, food, assisted housing, post-secondary education, and many others. Such non-cash benefits were included in 2019 expansion of the rule by former President Donald Trump.
It also “de-fangs the statutory requirement ‘rendering most family-sponsored applicants automatically inadmissible on public charge grounds unless they obtained an enforceable affidavit of support from a sponsor’ by prohibiting a meaningful evaluation of whether the affidavit is true and correct,” according to the lawsuit.
Ultimately, the new rule is “seemingly intended and designed to ensure—and will ensure—that virtually no alien is ever found to be a public charge.”
The 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which reaffirmed the “public-charge” rule, stated, “Self-sufficiency has been a basic principle of United States immigration law since this country’s earliest immigration statutes.”
It required that “aliens within the Nation’s border not depend on public resources to meet their needs” so that the “availability of public benefits not constitute an incentive for immigration to the United States.”
Paxton has also petitioned the Supreme Court, asking to be allowed to defend the Trump-era “public-charge” rule in federal court due to the Biden administration’s refusal.
Texas Public Charge Lawsuit by Breitbart News
The case is Texas v. Mayorkas, No. 6:23-cv-1, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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