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The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to deny green cards to immigrants who are thought to be likely to become “public charges” by making even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. As in a similar case last month, the vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservative justices in the majority. As before, the court’s brief order included no reasons for lifting a preliminary injunction that had blocked the new program. (Liptak, 2/21)

Sotomayor, who joined fellow liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan in the minority, argued that cases have repeatedly been rushed to the Supreme Court without being “ventilated fully in the lower courts.” She went as far as to say that the practice is “putting a thumb on the scale in favor” of the party that won a stay -- a pointed dig at the Trump administration and her conservative colleagues. “Claiming one emergency after another, the Government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.” (Waller, 2/22)

Critics say the rules, which the administration plans to begin enforcing Monday, replace decades of understanding and would place a burden on poor immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. A judge had blocked the administration from implementing the new standards in Illinois, and the Supreme Court’s decision dissolves that order. As is common in such emergency applications, the majority did not explain its reasoning. (Barnes, 2/21)

"It's the administration saying let's get as close as we can to the 1924 act that restricted immigration from everywhere but Northern Europe," said Doug Rand, co-founder of Boundless Immigration who formerly worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House. (Kight, 2/23)

The court's move is a win for the Trump administration, and the White House said Saturday that it's "gratified" by the ruling. "This final rule will protect hardworking American taxpayers, safeguard welfare programs for truly needy Americans, reduce the Federal deficit, and re-establish the fundamental legal principle that newcomers to our society should be financially self-reliant and not dependent on the largess(e) of United States taxpayers," the statement released by the Office of the Press Secretary said. (De Vogue, 2/22)

The case heard by the court, Wolf v. Cook County, sought to reject the policy’s effect in Illinois. The district court filed a preliminary injunction, which temporarily halted the policy in the state and sent the case to the Supreme Court. On Friday, the five conservative justices ruled in favor of the stay, while the liberal justices opposed it. (Moreno, 2/22)

Since the rule was finalized in August, it has been the subject of multiple lawsuits over whether the Department of Homeland Security had the authority to issue the policy. Federal immigration officials may consider legal immigrants' use of public benefits, such as Medicaid, housing and other programs as a strongly negative factor in their permanent resident applications. The rule was set to go into effect on Oct. 15, 2019. (Teichert, 2/22)

The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a federal judge’s order Friday and agreed to provide mental health care to thousands of immigrant parents and children who were separated at the Mexican border by the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt of Los Angeles issued the injunction in November requiring the government to promptly provide mental health screenings for the parents and their families, and treatment for those who needed it. (Egelko, 2/21)

President Trump’s immigration policies — like travel bans and visa restrictions or refugee caps and asylum changes — have begun to deliver on a longstanding goal: Legal immigration has fallen more than 11 percent and a steeper cut is looming. While Mr. Trump highlights the construction of a border wall to stress his war on illegal immigration, it is through policy changes, not physical barriers, that his administration has been able to seal the United States. Two more measures were to take effect by Monday, an expansion of his travel ban and strict wealth tests on green card applicants. (Kanno-Youngs, 2/24)