Recommended
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a lawsuit this Monday against the Donald Trump administration's plan to deny permanent residency cards, known as 'green cards', to immigrants who receive public assistance.
New York is leading a coalition against the Trump administration's new immigration strategy, which has also been joined by the cities of Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as California's Santa Clara County, King County in Washington state, and the organization Public Rights Project.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to halt the public charge rule reform, which is scheduled to take effect this Friday.
"We don't want a temporary restraining order; we want to completely stop the implementation of this rule," Mamdani asserted at a press conference at City Hall alongside New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading a separate lawsuit against the same rule.
The new rule, which represents a reversal of the framework established by former President Joe Biden, will give immigration officials greater discretion to deny permanent residency permits to immigrants who are considered highly likely to depend primarily on government economic assistance in the future.
"Make no mistake: this is a blatant attempt to deprive New Yorkers of the services they rely on and the public benefits to which they are entitled," the mayor stated.
The mayor warned that some families "have already begun to forgo essential services" for fear that they could be used in the future to deny them residency in the country: "It is estimated that up to 4 million people across the country could drop their health insurance alone, including 1.8 million children."
Mamdani noted that this could increase the premature mortality rate among immigrant communities in New York by "up to 10.6%" over the next five years.
Some of the programs that would be affected include Medicaid, SNAP food stamps, and affordable housing assistance.
"We are going to exhaust every resource at our disposal to take care of New Yorkers," concluded Mamdani, who described the Trump administration's position as "cruel."
[Publicidad]