Democrats led by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) are suing President Donald Trump’s administration for shutting down welfare-dependent legal immigration to the United States through the “public charge” rule.
In July, the Trump administration reimposed the rule, which makes legal immigrants less likely to secure green cards if they have used any form of welfare in the past, including subsidized healthcare services, food stamps, or public housing.
On Monday, Mamdani held a press conference announcing the lawsuit, claiming that immigrants “will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to” because of the public charge rule.
“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades … that fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting,” Mamdani said:
Families who remain fully eligible for benefits will feel a chilling effect, and all New Yorkers will pay for it. New York City is proud to lead a coalition of cities and counties — Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Seattle, King County and the Public Rights Project — standing firmly against this cruel and unlawful rule. Our immigrant communities are not a burden. They are the people who make New York City and country great. We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they can continue to live here with dignity and without fear. [Emphasis added]
Likewise, Johnson issued a statement, saying that “Chicago will not stand by while the federal government forces immigrant families to choose between putting food on the table, taking their children to the doctor, or protecting their ability to remain in this country.”
“This rule is not only cruel, it is unlawful, and it threatens the health and safety of our entire city,” Johnson said:
More than half a million Chicagoans were born outside the United States. They are our neighbors and an essential part of who we are. Chicago has fought these attacks before, and, alongside New York and cities across the country, we will fight them again. We will use every tool available to protect our immigrant communities and defend their right to live with dignity and without fear. [Emphasis added]
Recent analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies revealed massive levels of welfare among the nation’s immigrant population.
From 2021 to 2025, about 47 percent of immigrant-headed households in the U.S. were on one or more traditional forms of welfare. Compare that to 28 percent of American citizen-headed households that were on one or more traditional forms of welfare — representing a 19-percent gap between welfare use among immigrants and Americans.
The case is New York City v. DHS, No. 1:26-cv-07982 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].
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