What to know about Trump's new green card policy

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Kimberly Adams (0:54)

A new rule changing what accessing public benefits means for immigration status.

From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. Immigrants applying for a green card could now potentially be denied if they or their children have received any kind of public benefits, like food or housing assistance, Medicaid or free school lunch. That's under the Trump administration's new public charge rule. More than 20 states and a separate group of cities are suing to block the changes, which went into effect on Friday. Marketplace's Samantha Fields reports.

Samantha Fields (1:27)

The US has had some kind of public charge rule in place since the late 1800s.

SPEAKER_4 (1:32)

Public charge rules say that people who are likely to be dependent on the government for their basic needs aren't eligible to immigrate permanently to the United States.

Samantha Fields (1:41)

Julia Gillatt at the Migration Policy Institute says, for a long time, that meant that if someone received cash assistance or if they were institutionalized on the government's dime, they wouldn't be eligible for a green card. But receiving other kinds of benefits wouldn't count against them.

SPEAKER_4 (1:57)

Now the Trump administration is basically saying that individual immigration officers should have full discretion to decide what kind of public benefits use make somebody a public charge and what doesn't count.

Samantha Fields (2:08)

That means it's possible someone could be denied a green card if they've received any kind of public benefits, like food assistance, Medicaid, or college financial aid, or if they're U.S.-born kids have.

Cory Alonso Yoder at the University of Maryland School of Law says immigrants generally aren't even eligible for most public assistance in the first place. But there are lots of mixed status families where parents aren't eligible for Medicaid or SNAP, but their kids are.

SPEAKER_5 (2:35)

I think that we're going to see more people afraid to seek any kind of medical care or health assistance, food nutrition assistance for their children.

Samantha Fields (2:45)

Because accepting that help could now count against them. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.

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The key reason for America's housing crisis is too little supply relative to demand. So, more and more experts and policy makers are exploring the idea that factory-built homes could boost the supply of quality housing at more reasonable prices. That ambition even made it into the new landmark federal housing law. Marketplace's senior economics contributor, Chris Farrell, has more.