Joseph B. Edlow said the Trump administration immigration green cards review is moving back to a broader public-charge standard that can consider Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance when officers weigh permanent residency cases. The change would restore wider discretion for immigration officers after a 2022 Biden-era rule narrowed what they could look at.
Edlow told CBS News that the government is is reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers
. He also said, Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves.
USCIS and DHS
The Department of Homeland Security is poised to rescind the 2022 regulation and bring back the broader public-charge test used in immigration decisions. USCIS officials said that review can include an applicant's age, health, family status, assets, financial resources, education, skills and receipt of means-tested taxpayer-funded benefits.
The change applies to noncitizens inside the U.S. who are applying to adjust their status to lawful permanent residence. It also applies to noncitizens seeking admission to the United States as immigrants or nonimmigrants unless Congress has exempted them.
2025 proposal
In its November 2025 proposal, DHS estimated that roughly 588,000 adjustment-of-status applicants each year would be subject to public-charge review. The same proposal estimated that changes to the policy could lead about 950,000 people in immigrant households to disenroll from or forgo public benefits.
That estimate gives the rule its practical reach: many more people may face review than the number of final denials, because the standard allows officers to weigh several factors case by case rather than apply a single cutoff. The benefits named in the proposal include food stamps, Medicaid and housing assistance.
Public-charge exemptions
The broader review does not erase every safeguard. The public charge test historically exempts some refugees, asylees and humanitarian categories, including Special Immigrant Juveniles, certain trafficking and crime victims, and Violence Against Women Act self-petitioners.
For applicants who are not in those exempted categories, the policy means benefit use can enter the filing record even when the benefits are legally available. DHS also said the proposed changes could discourage immigrant households from using aid they qualify for, which makes the review broader than a simple check on current income.
The open issue is how the rule will be applied in individual cases once DHS moves ahead with rescinding the 2022 regulation. The agency has already set out the review framework and the applicant totals; the next step will determine how much discretion officers actually use.
