By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss a dispute over the legality of one of former President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration rules that bars immigrants deemed likely to require government benefits from obtaining legal permanent residency.
Biden, who has criticized Trump’s immigration approach, is widely expected to dump the policy known as the “public charge” rule.
The justices on Feb. 22 had agreed to hear an appeal filed by Trump’s administration of a lower court ruling that found the rule likely violated federal immigration and administrative law by impermissibly expanding the definition of who counts as a “public charge” and greatly increasing the number of people who would be rejected for residency.
Lawyers for the jurisdictions challenging the rule, including the state of New York, said they agreed with the Biden administration that the cases should be dismissed.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
