Texas Sues Obiden Regime Over Public Charge Immigration Rule Change

Illegal aliens walk across the Rio Grande to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas.

Paxton said on Twitter:

I’ve sued [The Obiden Regime] over a dozen times to secure our southern border.

Now, just as 2023 is starting, I’m bringing another lawsuit—the first of its kind in the nation on [the Obiden] disastrous new public-charge rule. I’ll keep suing [and] winning until he [and] his lawless [regime] follow the law.

Paxton accused the Obiden Regime of furthering an open borders policy by enacting the new rule, which:

[E]ffectively nullifies federal law excluding aliens likely to become public charges…

…according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (pdf).

That rule has been in place since 1882 and was reaffirmed by Congress in 1996 under the bipartisan Welfare Reform Act.

The lawsuit alleges:

By not enforcing the law, the Obiden Regime has opened the door to illegal aliens who’ll be dependent on welfare.

Further: Paxton’s lawsuit argues that the December 2022 rule was enacted in violation of federal law and is arbitrary and capricious.

He said in a statement:

The [Obiden Regime] is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to take care of themselves.

Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other America.

I will continue to defend the rule of law and fight to ensure that the massive costs of illegal immigration don’t further burden taxpayers.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Paxton’s office said the new rule prohibits the consideration of statutorily required factors in determining whether an alien is likely to become a “public charge.”

The term public charge first appeared in statute in the Immigration Act of 1882, where Congress barred the admission of:

[A]ny person unable to take care of himself/herself without becoming a public charge.

Self-sufficiency has been considered a basic principle of U.S. immigration law since the country’s earliest immigration statutes. It is U.S. immigration policy that aliens within the country’s borders shouldn’t depend on public resources to meet their needs but rather rely on their individual capabilities and the resources of their families, sponsors, and private organizations. Further, the availability of public benefits shouldn’t be an incentive for immigration to the United States.

As assurance that they won’t become a drain on taxpayers, aliens usually offer U.S. authorities documentation that their family will financially support them. However, according to Paxton’s office:

[The Regime’s] rule prevents a comprehensive probe of the truth of this material. 

Paxton is also leading a 14-state coalition that filed a cert-stage brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2022 after The Regime tried to covertly abolish the public charge rule. That petition was filed after the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against a Texas-led coalition.

Paxton said at the time:

With America in the midst of a recession and families across the country already facing record-high inflation, it’s completely reprehensible to expect taxpayers to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor more and more illegal aliens.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent with an illegal immigrant after he crossed into the United States from Mexico.

Paxton argues in his lawsuit that The Obiden Regime rule change is intended to ensure that “virtually no alien is ever found to be a public charge.”

According to the lawsuit:

[T]he 1996 reform was designed to increase the bite of the public charge determination, [however], the 2022 rule change illegally narrows the meaning of ‘public charge’ to oblivion, disregarding of the term’s historical meaning and violating the statute.