New Trump Administration ‘Final Rule’ Immigration Policy to be Implemented this Month

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will implement the Trump Administration’s Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds final rule (“Final Rule”) on Feb. 24, 2020. Under the Final Rule, USCIS will look at “an alien’s age, health, income, education and skills, among others, in order to determine whether the alien is likely at any time to become a public charge.” Additionally, “the Final Rule includes a requirement that aliens seeking an extension or stay of change of status demonstrate that they have not received public benefits” to continue residence in the United States.

Originally scheduled to be effective in October of 2019, the new immigration policy had been delayed by numerous injunctions across the country. Ultimately leading all the way up to a petition to the Supreme Court, last week, “the Court (rightly) grants a stay, allowing the government to pursue (for now) its policy everywhere save Illinois.” (Illinois is still in the midst of legal battles in the lower courts.)