States, cities sue over Trump rule seeking to deny green cards to immigrants using public benefits

NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic-led states and cities filed lawsuits Monday challenging a federal rule set to begin Friday that they say gives President Donald Trump’s administration broad discretion to deny green cards to immigrants who rely on public assistance for food, healthcare, housing and other basic needs.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading a coalition of 21 other states in one of the suits, said the rule would force needy immigrant families to choose between seeking assistance and seeking legal status in the country. California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin are among the states involved in the legal challenge.

“This rule preys on that fear and counts on families forfeiting the food assistance, health care coverage, and other public benefits to which they are legally entitled,” she said Monday at a news conference in City Hall alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and immigrant advocates.

Mamdani filed a separate suit with leaders of other U.S. cities, including Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. He said the rule would have a “chilling effect” not just on immigrants seeking legal status but other residents of the nation’s largest city.

“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades,” the mayor said. “New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to. That fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is named in the lawsuits, dismissed the dire warnings.

“Let’s get this straight, sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs,” the agency said in a statement. “We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome.”

The lawsuits challenge DHS’s plan to revive a “public charge” rule the Republican president originally imposed during his first term, only to have it reversed under his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden.

The lawsuits, which were both filed in federal court in Manhattan, argue the new rule is “arbitrary and capricious,” exceeds the DHS’s statutory authority, and departs from the longstanding meaning of the federal government’s public charge provision.

Specifically, James said, the rule unlawfully gives immigration officials broad discretion to consider a wide range of public benefits when making their decisions on immigrants seeking legal status in the country.

She said the rule lets immigration officers count nearly any public benefit, used for any length of time, against a green card applicant -- even if it’s a U.S. citizen family member who is taking advantage of the benefit.

That means a parent’s green card application could be at risk simply because their U.S. citizen child used state-provided health insurance or participated in a school’s free lunch program, James said.

“This new rule sweeps away more than a century of settled law to unlawfully broaden the definition of ‘public charge’ in a way that Congress never intended,” added Steve Banks, the city’s corporation counsel.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the rule a “cruel policy.”

Federal law already requires those seeking permanent residency or legal status to demonstrate they will not rely on public benefits.

The new rule does not specify the programs that could be taken into account. It simply says officers, “using good judgment and discretion,” will make “individualized, fact-specific public charge inadmissible determinations, based on a totality of the alien’s circumstances.”

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Associated Press reporters Sophie Austin in Sacramento, Calif. and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this story.

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during an announcement of a lawsuit filed by New York and 21 other states challenging the federal government's new public charge rule, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during an announcement of a lawsuit filed by New York and 21 other states challenging the federal government's new public charge rule, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James announce a lawsuit filed by New York and 21 other states challenging the federal government's new public charge rule, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during an announcement of a lawsuit filed by New York and 21 other states challenging the federal government's new public charge rule, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during an announcement of a lawsuit filed by New York and 21 other states challenging the federal government's new public charge rule, on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump Jr.'s new wife, Bettina, is confirming that her May wedding weekend celebration was partially funded by a man with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a post on her Instagram page Monday morning signed by the couple, Bettina Trump wrote that the man, Umar Kremlev, was a “dear friend,” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.”

“It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” it went on.

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative website, reported earlier Monday that the wedding between Trump Jr. and socialite Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas was heavily funded by Kremlev, a Russian oligarch who heads the International Boxing Association. ProPublica reported that Kremlev “footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses,” including paying to rent out one of two private islands where the three-day party was held and a fireworks show.

In the post, Bettina Trump said that she and the president's son were married in a private ceremony “surrounded ONLY by our family,”

“The weekend that followed had actually been planned well in advance as a fun weekend with friends. It was never intended to be our wedding weekend. When our original wedding plans changed, we simply decided to get married before it and arrived at an already planned weekend as newlyweds,” it went on. “It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift."

That gift comes as Russia remains at war following its invasion of Ukraine and as the president has failed to broker a promised peace deal between the nations.

Kremlev was recently honored with the Order of Friendship by Putin, according to the International Boxing Association, and accompanied Putin to China as part of a Russian delegation, according to the Chinese state media cited by the outlet.

Trump Jr. has previously been scrutinized over his Russian ties. During the 2016 campaign, his meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower was the subject of intense scrutiny by federal and congressional investigators probing whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to meddle in the election.

The meeting had been billed as an opportunity to discuss potentially incriminating information about the president's then-Democrat opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as part of the Russian government’s efforts to help Trump Jr.'s father win the White House.

Donald Trump Jr. and his wife Bettina Anderson look at each other while waiting for President Donald Trump to speak at Deerfield Residence, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Edward S. Walsh, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Dublin. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)