Press Releases
04/13/2020
Attorney General Tong Urges Supreme Court to Reconsider Public Charge Rule Due to COVID-19 Public Health Crisis
Motion Includes Account from Connecticut Physician Seeing Patients Afraid to Seek COVID-19 Care, Food Assistance Due to Immigration Fears
(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of three states and New York City in filing a motion to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit implementation of the Public Charge Rule in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis.The Public Charge rule allows the federal government to deny green cards and visas to immigrants who are deemed likely to use government assistance programs, including health care programs like Medicaid. The rule is a scheme to deter legal immigrants and their families from seeking access to the medical care, healthy food and safe housing they are lawfully eligible to receive.
Connecticut is part of a multistate coalition actively participating in a legal challenge to the rule, which went into effect nationwide in February after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary injunction blocking implementation. Nearly 200,000 Connecticut residents are now in danger of losing access to services like food assistance, Medicaid, and Section 8 housing vouchers.
The coalition is asking the court to revisit the question of interim relief in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis.
The harm in Connecticut from the Public Charge Rule is real. The motion filed today includes a declaration from a resident physician in psychiatry at the Connecticut Mental Health Center who reported speaking to patients afraid of seeking COVID-19 care due to fears it could impact their immigration status. The same doctor heard additional reports of patients with symptoms of COVID-19 afraid to go to the hospital or even obtain testing because of fears of Public Charge consequences. The doctor also reported an additional patient who had lost income and was facing food insecurity who was afraid to apply for food stamps because of the potential for immigration consequences.
“This harm is not theoretical. We are hearing from doctors in Connecticut whose patients are afraid to seek COVID-19 care and lifesaving public assistance benefits due to fears of what the Public Charge Rule will mean for their immigration status. We cannot afford to divide and discriminate during a public health crisis. Every single person needs access to health care right now. Our circumstances are fundamentally changed since the Supreme Court last considered the Public Charge Rule earlier this year. We are facing unprecedented unemployment, and a spread of infection we have only begun to contain. The Public Charge Rule is a self-inflicted wound causing cruel and needless hardship on thousands of Connecticut families. It must be halted,” said Attorney General Tong.
Since the Supreme Court issued its February ruling, COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the national landscape.
In early March — when the coronavirus first began to spread across the country — the coalition sent a letter to the Trump Administration seeking to suspend the Public Charge Rule, in an effort to ensure immigrants would not fear seeing a doctor. After the first letter went unanswered, the Administration posted a confusing and contradictory alert claiming to offer a resolution for immigrants. The coalition sent a second letter again calling for a halt of the rule, pointing out the alert contained confusing and contradictory statements about the impact that using Medicaid would have on non-citizens subject to the rule. The Trump Administration refused to answer the second letter as well.
The motion filed with the Supreme Court today by the coalition asks the court to take into consideration the extraordinary events of the last six weeks and the new harms that the rule is causing to public health and the economy during the COVID-19 crisis. The motion asks the court to temporarily lift or modify its stay to halt implementation of the Public Charge Rule until the national emergency concerning COVID-19 is over.
“By deterring immigrants from accessing publicly funded health care, including programs that would enable immigrants to obtain testing and treatment for COVID-19, the Rule makes it more likely that immigrants will suffer serious illness if infected and spread the virus inadvertently to others — risks that are heightened because immigrants make up a large proportion of the essential workers who continue to interact with the public,” the motion argues. “The Rule’s deterrent effect on immigrants’ access to health care and other public benefits for which they are indisputably eligible is impeding efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, preserve scarce hospital capacity and medical supplies, and protect the lives of everyone in our communities — citizens and noncitizens alike.”
Further, the coalition argues that the nation’s economy cannot undergo further damage from the spread of COVID-19. In the three-week period between March 19 and April 9, more than 16 million residents across the nation lost their jobs and filed for unemployment. And according to estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between February and March 2020, the number of immigrant adults who are unemployed rose by 26 percent. As today’s motion argues, “many workers who lose their jobs and their employer-sponsored health insurance because of the pandemic are likely to need Medicaid coverage until they can find another job.”
The coalition concludes by arguing that none of these harms were before the Supreme Court when it decided to stay the district court’s orders in January, justifying a temporarily halt of the stay order. “The nature and magnitude of the harms currently being imposed by the Rule warrant temporary relief from the stay, particularly when these harms were not known to the parties or the Court when the Court considered defendants’ stay application. Although this case has always concerned issues of public health and welfare, the COVID-19 outbreak and its ramifications on public health and the economy present sudden and stark new circumstances not previously considered by the Court and have vastly changed and amplified the irreparable harms caused by the Rule. And the likelihood of these harms occurring is no longer a prediction. The Rule’s devastating effects are happening now. Given these new circumstances, the Court should modify or lift its stay temporarily to meet the exigencies and equities of the current public-health and economic crisis.”
Attorney General Tong joins the attorneys general of New York and Vermont, as well as corporation counsel for New York City in filing today’s motion with the Supreme Court.
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