New York is once again leading the legal charge against the Trump administration — this time over immigrants' access to green cards. On Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a coalition of 21 other states and Washington, D.C. suing the Department of Homeland Security to block a rule that would give immigration officers sweeping new discretion to deny green cards and visas based on an applicant's use of public benefits.

A separate, parallel suit was filed the same day in the Southern District of New York by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, joined by Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Seattle and King County, Washington. Both cases target the same DHS rule, which is scheduled to take effect this Friday, September 18.

What the rule actually does

The regulation would let immigration officials weigh an applicant's use of Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, school meal programs, cash assistance and long-term institutional care — including benefits used by U.S. citizen family members — when deciding whether someone is likely to become a "public charge" and therefore ineligible for a green card. State attorneys general argue the move violates the Administrative Procedure Act, calling it arbitrary, beyond DHS's statutory authority, and a break from roughly 140 years of settled public-charge precedent.

"HARDWORKING FAMILIES SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO GO WITHOUT THE SUPPORT THEY NEED BECAUSE THEY FEAR ASKING FOR ASSISTANCE WILL GET THEM DEPORTED." — Attorney General Letitia James

DHS's own projections, cited in regulatory filings reported this week, estimate that roughly 950,000 people nationwide will disenroll from benefits like Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance simply out of fear of the new rule — even though only about 588,000 applicants a year would actually face the expanded review. Mamdani, at a Monday press conference, went further, estimating up to 4 million people could drop health coverage altogether, including 1.8 million children.

"People could die as a result of these changes," Mamdani said. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was similarly blunt: "This rule is not only cruel, it is unlawful, and it threatens the health and safety of our entire city." Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also signed onto the multistate suit, part of a coalition that spans two dozen states and the nation's capital.

DHS has pushed back hard. A department spokesperson characterized the lawsuits as an effort by "sanctuary jurisdictions" to protect federal funding streams tied to immigrant enrollment in welfare programs, rather than a genuine legal dispute. In formal rulemaking documents, the agency has argued the current, narrower public-charge standard — put in place after the Trump administration's first-term version was rolled back — improperly limits officers' discretion and departs from a "long-standing policy that aliens in the United States should be self-reliant."

The dual lawsuits, both filed in Manhattan federal court, ask judges to block the rule before it takes effect Friday. No hearing date had been set as of Tuesday night. If a judge declines to issue emergency relief this week, the rule will go live nationwide even as litigation continues — meaning the coming days could determine whether hundreds of thousands of immigrant families pull back from safety-net programs before any court has the final word.