The Trump administration was dedicated to closing all avenues for immigration, from blocking asylum-seekers at the border to ending protections for Dreamers to constricting the availability of lawful permanent residence to long-time immigrants. One of its priorities had been to transform the system of family-based immigration by redefining millions of immigrants as future public charges and to deny them green cards as a result. In 2018 and 2019, in response to the administration's development of regulations redefining the public charge bar, Make the Road New York and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies for information and documents. When DHS, ICE, USCIS, and the DOJ failed to produce a single document, Make the Road New York and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a case in the Eastern District of New York to enforce their rights under the FOIA. The case settled in May 2022.