CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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A RESOLUTION rejecting the Federal Administration's proposed public charge rule change as applied to legal permanent residency applications by immigrants because of the harm to, negative impact on, and chilling effect on immigrant communities' access to vital services and cost-saving initiatives that keep families healthy and on the path towards economic self-sufficiency and success.
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WHEREAS, on October 10, 2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a change to the "public charge" rule, proposing that when considering an immigrant's application for legal permanent residency, DHS may consider an applicant's use, or likely use at any time in the future, of anti-poverty safety net programs that improve access to health care, nutrition, and housing security, as a factor for denying legal status to an immigrant; and
WHEREAS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services currently only evaluates whether potential immigrants are likely to be a "public charge" when considering green card applications. Current policy evaluates only two types of public benefits in a public charge determination: cash assistance for income maintenance and institutionalization for long-term care at government expense; and
WHEREAS, under the proposed rule change, benefits that could be considered in a public charge determination would include medical assistance, food stamps (SNAP), federally subsidized public housing or housing vouchers, and Medicare Part D subsidies; and
WHEREAS, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that, under the proposed public charge test, more than 100 million people - about one-third of the total U.S. population - would fail the public-charge determination if they were required to take it today; and
WHEREAS, according to New American Economy, Seattle's metro area immigrant residents paid $8.0 billion in federal and local taxes in 2016 - a significant contribution to funding the ve...
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