On December 19, 2025, NWLC submitted comments strongly opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to rescind its 2022 public charge rule. This proposal threatens to harm immigrant children, women, and LGBTQIA+ individuals and their families by leaving the determination of whether an individual applying for admission to the U.S. or for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status is a “public charge” to the unbounded discretion of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers.
NWLC’s comment highlights how barriers to critical public benefits, health care, and economic security are harmful to immigrant individuals and their communities—and how DHS’s proposal will only exacerbate these barriers. Removing the clear guidelines established in the 2022 rule and instead granting broad discretion to USCIS officers in public charge determinations invites bias and discrimination and will deter lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens from accessing public benefits that are essential to their well-being.
NWLC’s comments opposing the public charge rule proposed during the first Trump administration (in 2018) are available here.