“The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss a case concerning a controversial Trump-era rule that makes it more difficult for immigrants to obtain legal status if they use public benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. The new filing is the latest example of the Biden administration’s Department of Justice switching positions from the Trump era. Under former President Donald Trump, immigration enforcement was a cornerstone of his agenda. Last month, the justices agreed to take up a challenge to the so called ‘public charge’ rule brought by The Legal Aid Society, various groups and state and local officials. But in a brief letter to the court on Tuesday, Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that both sides had agreed that the challenge should be dismissed. Susan Welber, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society said in an interview that the filing means that the Trump rule will ‘now be blocked while the Biden administration continues its review process and decides what the new will be.'”

“President Joe Biden has called for the immediate review of the rule in an executive order which, he said, ‘should consider and evaluate’ the effects of the rule and recommend steps agencies should take ‘to clearly communicate current public charge policies and proposed changes, if any, to reduce fear and confusion among impacted communities.’ The Legal Aid Society and the other groups praised Biden’s actions and said in a statement that ‘the Trump rule erected an invisible wall in the form of a wealth test that discriminated against people on the basis of race as a condition for regularizing their immigration status.’ ‘And because of the public charge rule, immigrant families have been living in fear of using essential benefits like healthcare, despite serving as frontline workers who have been among those hardest hit by COVID-19,’ the statement read. The Trump rule was issued in 2019 and had been in effect in most states nationwide” – CNN.