September 8, 2022 Dear [[First_Name]], The Biden administration public-charge final rule out today undoes deep restrictions imposed during the Trump era, codifying much of the policy in place from 1999 to 2019. Yet confusion and fear over triggering negative immigration consequences will continue to keep many immigrants and their U.S.-born relatives from accessing benefits and services for which they are eligible absent a robust educational campaign, a new Migration Policy Institute commentary explains. The long-discussed final rule represents a major break from how individuals were deemed a public charge under the Trump administration. But recent interviews by MPI researchers in several U.S. cities make clear that confusion and fear are keeping—and will likely continue to keep—many eligible individuals in immigrant households from accessing benefits and services. The analysts, Jonathan Beier and Essey Workie, spoke to former unaccompanied noncitizen children over the summer, as well as more than 100 attorneys, government officials, and service providers. Even with the end of the Trump-era rule more than a year earlier, they found pervasive fear of becoming a public charge and thus risking blemishes on future immigration applications. They also heard reports of some lawyers offering legal advice at odds with actual policies. “While welcomed by many advocates, the latest rule will likely fail to significantly quell fears in immigrant communities unless it comes with a robust educational plan targeted at individuals, immigration attorneys, and others whom immigrants rely upon for advice,” they write, offering recommendations for outreach to address confusion and misinformation. You can read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/public-charge-final-rule-far-last-word. Best regards,
 Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Migration Policy Institute |
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| The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org. |
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