Donald Trump’s “public charge” rule change continues to get squashed in federal court, with a federal judge on Monday blocking the discriminatory policy from going into effect this week. It represents quite a losing streak for Trump: The Illinois judge’s decision is the fourth ruling against him and his administration on this issue since just last Friday.
“In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman provided a long legal explanation for his decision,” WBEZ reported, “writing that ‘this case has important policy implications, and the competing policy views held by parties ... but let there be no mistake: The court’s decision today rests not one bit on policy. Feinerman continued by clearly identifying his role in this argument. ‘It is Congress’s job to enact policy and it is this Court’s job to follow the policy Congress has prescribed,’ he wrote.”
In one of the three separate court decisions against the administration last Friday, U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York assailed the policy as “repugnant to the American Dream,” writing that “Immigrants have always come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their posterity.” In another ruling that day, California U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton wrote that officials "made no attempt, whatsoever, to investigate the type or magnitude of harm” that could result from the change.
It’s long been clear that an administration that hasn’t batted an eye at spending over $100 million on golf outings pursued the change not out of fiscal concerns (laughable), but because of the misery it could inflict on kids and families. “Francis—The timeline on public charge is unacceptable,” White House aide and white supremacist Stephen Miller raged in an email to the now-former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director last year. “The public charge reg has been in the works for a year and a half. This is time we don't have. I don't care what you need to do to finish it on time.”
What Miller wanted to happen faster was for more brown kids to drop out of nutritional programs they’re eligible for, for more brown kids to drop out of health services they’re eligible for, just to cause more pain and suffering, plain and simple. While that fear certainly hasn’t ended because of a court’s ruling, at least for now the policy itself has been stopped, and what’s been a losing streak for the administration is a win for immigrant families. “Justice prevailed today,” said Militza Pagan, an attorney for plaintiff Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights.