Oregon Dept. of Justice releases · Sep 14, 2026, 11:39 AM

Attorney General Rayfield Takes Action to Stop Trump Administration Rule Punishing Immigrants

Attorney General Dan Rayfield took action against the Trump administration today to stop a new rule that would punish immigrants for using public benefits they’re legally allowed to use, like Medicaid and food assistance. The rule would let immigration officers deny green cards to people simply because they or a family member used help they were entitled to.

“The Trump Administration’s plans would make our communities less healthy and less safe,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “This rule would attack our neighbors and deny them access to critical services that they’re legally allowed to use.”

The rule changes who counts as a “public charge” – the government’s term for someone likely to need long-term government support to get by. Under a 2022 rule, that term only applied to people relying on cash assistance or living in a government-funded nursing home long-term. The new rule expands the definition significantly. Now, immigration officers can count almost any public benefit against someone applying for a green card, no matter how briefly they used it. Officers can even hold it against an applicant if a family member they support used benefits – even if that family member is a U.S. citizen.

Under the Trump Administration’s new rules, there’s no clear line for which benefits count or how much use is too much. That leaves families guessing about what kind of help might put their immigration status at risk.

The federal government already knows what that fear does. Its own estimates predict families will stop using benefits to which they’re entitled, making our communities sicker, hungrier, and less safe.

The damage won’t stop there. When people lose health coverage, they put off care until it becomes an emergency, driving up costs at hospitals and clinics that serve everyone. Schools could lose free and reduced-price meal programs for eligible kids if enrollment in Medicaid and food assistance drops too low – regardless of a student’s own immigration status. Federal school funding could drop too. Grocery stores and local businesses that rely on food assistance dollars would take a hit. And state and local governments will have to pay for new outreach, staff training, and technology to manage the fallout – on top of the cost of people cycling on and off these programs out of fear.

AG Rayfield filed the lawsuit alongside the attorneys general of 21 other states and Washington, D.C. They argue the rule is illegal: it was adopted without a reasonable basis, goes beyond what the Department of Homeland Security is allowed to do, and abandons the meaning of “public charge” that Congress set decades ago. Oregon has fought this exact fight before; when the Trump administration tried something similar in 2019, the state sued to block it, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that win.

AG Rayfield is asking a federal judge to declare the 2026 public charge rule unlawful and vacate it, protecting Oregonians from its unlawful harms.

Attorney General Rayfield is filing this lawsuit with the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, and the governor of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit was also filed alongside a coalition of cities and counties led by the City of New York.

Oregon Dept. of Justice releases · Sep 14, 2026, 11:26 AM

Attorney General Rayfield Stops Trump Administration from Gutting AmeriCorps Again

Attorney General Dan Rayfield has stopped the Trump administration from tearing apart AmeriCorps again without warning. AG Rayfield secured a settlement that protects critical AmeriCorps programming and volunteers; the resolution of this case follows a previous action that forced the administration to restore nearly $400 million in canceled AmeriCorps funding and release another $184 million that had been held back from programs in Oregon and across the country.

“AmeriCorps volunteers show up for Oregon communities every day, strengthening our schools, our nonprofits, and our neighborhoods,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “We already stopped the Trump administration from dismantling this program once. This settlement protects AmeriCorps for another year.”

AmeriCorps pays for and places volunteers with local organizations that do work like tutoring students, cleaning up after disasters, and supporting low-income families. Those organizations depend on AmeriCorps to recruit and manage the volunteers who do that work.

Under the settlement, AmeriCorps has agreed that this year it won’t cancel grants all at once like it did last spring, lay off represented employees beyond cuts already planned, or dismiss volunteers en masse. The federal administration will have to warn the states 30 days ahead of time if it proposes major changes to the program and explain its legal justification.

AmeriCorps also agreed to spend nearly all of this year’s funding by September 30, and to run two of its programs — the National Civilian Community Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA — according to federal law. The administration can’t change the terms for people currently serving in those programs except in specific situations spelled out in the settlement.

The states sued in April 2025, after the Trump administration tried to cut nearly 90 percent of AmeriCorps’ staff, cancel its contracts, and shut down $400 million worth of programs. A federal court ordered the administration to restore the programs it had illegally canceled. In August 2025, the administration agreed to release more than $184 million in funding.