‘People Could Die’: Mamdani Sounds Alarm as Cities Sue Trump Administration Over Immigrant Welfare Benefits

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday he was leading a coalition of cities suing over the Trump administration’s effort to block welfare benefits for certain immigrants.

Other plaintiffs suing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York are Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara County, California, Seattle and King County, Washington, and the Public Rights Project.

A DHS spokesperson said this is just a matter of sanctuary jurisdictions seeking more federal funding.

“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 DHS spokesperson told the Daily Signal. “We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome.”

“This is the ideological contortion required by left-wing leaders to justify their defrauding of the American taxpayer at the hands of illegal criminals,” the DHS spokesperson added. “DHS has heard for months from the trusted journalists at CNN and others that illegal aliens weren’t using these very same welfare programs. So, which is it?”

In August, USCIS issued guidance to provide more information on how immigration officers will determine if immigrants applying for green cards are likely to be a “public charge,” or an immigrant determined to depend primarily on the government to live. The August 2026 guidance instructs immigration officers to follow the statute by considering all relevant information, including age, health, family status, financial status, and education, and applying a “totality of the circumstances” analysis.

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“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades,” Mamdani 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 rule is expected to go into effect on Sept. 18.

Mamdani argued in a speech Monday that the new guidance violates a century of settled law and decades of federal guidance about limits on how public charge determinations can be made.

“It is estimated up to four million people from across the country could un-enroll in their healthcare alone, including 1.8 million children,” Mamdani said. “None of this is abstract. People could die.”

He added, “Cruelty is not how we choose to govern. Immigrants are New Yorkers.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a separate lawsuit over the rule. James joined Mamdani at the announcement.

Plaintiffs also contend it will have a chilling effect on immigrants accessing benefits or seeking medical care.

The new guidance expands immigration discretion to consider an immigrant’s use of public benefits.

“Chicago will not stand by while the federal government forces immigrant families to choose between putting food on the table, taking their children to the doctor, or protecting their ability to remain in this country. This rule is not only cruel, it is unlawful, and it threatens the health and safety of our entire city,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement.

“More than half a million Chicagoans were born outside the United States,” Johnson added. “They are our neighbors and an essential part of who we are. Chicago has fought these attacks before, and, alongside New York and cities across the country, we will fight them again.”