NEW YORK — The Trump administration’s plans to target immigrants for deportation for lawfully using public benefits could have fatal consequences by deterring those in need of food or healthcare from using available services, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday as he and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a set of lawsuits in Manhattan targeting the new measures.

The plans are certain to make “hungry New Yorkers hungrier” and “poor New Yorkers poorer,” Mamdani said at a news conference announcing the suits.

The Manhattan Federal Court cases brought by a coalition of states and cities seek to stop new changes to the United States’ “public charge” rule from taking effect on Friday. The rule dramatically expands the list of public benefits that count as a mark against green card or visa applicants.

Mamdani said the policy would put thousands of New York families in the impossible position of having to choose between obtaining healthcare for a U.S. citizen child and noncitizen parents’ ability to remain in the country. He said it had already seen many forgo applying for programs like SNAP, Medicaid and affordable housing.

Referring to studies by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which are referenced in the cities’ lawsuit, the mayor said the measures could see the rate of premature death in immigrant communities increase by 10.6% within just five years by reducing primary care access and doctors’ visits.

“None of this is abstract. People could die as a result of these changes,” the mayor said. “The data is clear. Denying people services does not erase their need. It compounds it, generating a greater cost to our system that will be placed on the backs of working people for years to come.”

Officials from DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services added the new ground of inadmissibility to federal rules on July 20 and published corresponding guidance on Aug. 18 in a policy alert in the USCIS manual. The measures would give immigration agents unfettered discretion to deny green cards to applicants who have sought public benefits, the suits detail.

Asking the court to vacate and block the rule and the guidance, the cities’ complaint against DHS and USCIS officials — which names New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and other counties and cities as plaintiffs — says they will lead to people forgoing direly needed benefits out of fear their immigration status or that of their loved ones will be adversely impacted.

“John Adams described a republic as ‘an Empire of Laws, and not of Men.’ Our nation’s founding is grounded in this core value. With the new public charge ‘rule,’ defendants eviscerate this principle,” the cities’ complaint reads.

The new rule, which immigrant rights advocates have called a “wealth test,” would also result in a greater costs to municipal governments, as immigrants who may not seek help for food or healthcare could end up with bigger, more urgent problems down the line, officials said Monday.

“The downstream effects will hurt our economy, will hurt businesses, will hurt government, will hurt our ability to address the needs not only in the city but across the state,” James said at the press conference.

The states’ case, brought by New York and nearly two dozen other states, including Nevada, California, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, argued that the new provision ignores a long-settled understanding of the term “public charge” as ratified by Congress.

“The final rule challenged here unlawfully removes any meaningful guidelines as to what individual immigration officers may consider in determining if certain non-citizens may be deemed a ‘public charge’ — and therefore denied entry to this country or denied legal permanent residence,” the states’ complaint reads.

“Congress never intended for the public charge ground to be weaponized against immigrants and their family members who merely use supplemental or temporary amounts of public assistance to which they are lawfully entitled.”

In a statement, The Legal Aid Society welcomed the lawsuits and described the Trump administration’s new policies as a thinly veiled effort to bar immigrants of color from legally pursuing lawful residence.

“The new public charge rule set to go into effect on Friday is an illegal, punitive measure that will result in tens of thousands of low-income immigrants and their families being denied lawful permanent resident status solely on the grounds that they might at some point receive any sort of means-tested public benefit,” the statement read.

“This is a blatant attempt by the current federal administration to arbitrarily bar more immigrants, particularly immigrants of color, from becoming permanent residents.”

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