Friday, March 12, 2021
On March 9, 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed several pending appeals over the “Public Charge Rule” following the Biden administration’s announcement that it would not defend the Trump-era regulation, issued in 2019, which dramatically increased scrutiny of assessment of public charge inadmissibility. In response, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 9, 2021, that applicants and petitioners were no longer required to provide information of public benefits and financial standing required solely by the Public Charge Rule for the benefit of a “totality of the circumstances” test assessing whether prospective immigrants were likely “at any time” to be a public charge.