AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton has led a 14-state coalition before the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of the “public-charge” rule, a federal law prohibiting immigration by aliens who are likely to rely on taxpayer-funded government programs.
Previously, an Illinois county and a non-profit sued the Trump Administration, challenging the public-charge rule, and the court blocked its enforcement.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case regarding the rule, but President Biden refused to defend.
Texas sought to defend the rule in the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and was denied.
Subsequently, Texas filed this lawsuit with the Supreme Court.
“Texas taxpayers are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars every year to sustain the services our state must provide to illegal aliens,” Paxton said. “Without the public-charge rule, our Medicaid budget and other vital services will explode and be spread too thin, costing taxpayers millions more and reducing the quality of service we can provide.
“President Biden failed to work through the administrative rule-making process and left Texas, along with our neighboring states, vulnerable. This is a shameless attempt to unravel common-sense immigration policies favored by a strong majority of Texans, and it cannot stand.”