Public Charge After September 18: Defending Protected Filings and Building the New Adjustment Record

Emily Sumner, Founding Senior Partner | Sumner Immigration Law, PLLC

Emily Sumner is the Founding Senior Partner of Sumner Immigration Law, PLLC in Richmond, Virginia, and has practiced immigration law exclusively throughout her career, guiding employers, professionals, and families through employment-based and family-based permanent residency from petition through adjustment of status. Her firm has been at the forefront of counseling green card applicants on the new public charge rule — including widely read guidance on whether to file before September 18 — making her ideally positioned to walk practitioners through protecting pending filings and assembling the financial documentation the new adjustment record requires.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Sumner earned her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law and her B.A. in Spanish from Wake Forest University, and is professionally fluent in Spanish. She is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Sumner is a frequent continuing legal education presenter on immigration law and a contributor of published articles on green card and employee-mobility strategy. Within the Virginia State Bar’s Young Lawyers Conference, she co-chaired the Immigrant Outreach Committee, and she served as Membership Chair of the Virginia Latinos in Higher Education Network.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Sumner has devoted her career to making the permanent residency process navigable, developing systems that reduce the complexity and timeline of green card filings — from PERM labor certification and H-1B and L-1 petitions to “fast track” self-sponsored categories such as Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Researcher, and National Interest Waiver petitions. She has also served as immigration counsel for the I Have a Dream Richmond Foundation, providing pro bono guidance to immigrant students and families.

• Experience

At Sumner Immigration Law, Ms. Sumner leads a practice built around adjustment of status — employment-based and family-based green cards, naturalization, and the documentary record that carries each case. That day-to-day focus on what USCIS actually scrutinizes in an I-485 filing, combined with her firm’s active client counseling on the September 18 public charge changes, makes her uniquely qualified to show attendees how to defend protected filings and build an adjustment record that satisfies the new financial-disclosure requirements.

Ashley Colón-Dziegielewski, Senior Attorney | Sumner Immigration Law, PLLC

Ashley Colón-Dziegielewski is a Senior Attorney at Sumner Immigration Law, PLLC, where she practices employment-based and family-based immigration and handles immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications from petition through adjustment of status. She brings a distinctive background in asylum and humanitarian relief — including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and U visas, categories at the heart of the new rule’s exemptions — giving her a dual command of the filings protected from public charge scrutiny and the adjustment cases that must now be documented under the post-September 18 framework.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Colón-Dziegielewski earned her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and her B.A. in History, cum laude, with a minor in Eastern European Studies, from Boston University. She is admitted to the Massachusetts State Bar.

• Recognition & Leadership

A member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Ms. Colón-Dziegielewski has built her practice guiding vulnerable clients through some of immigration law’s most demanding filings — asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and U visa cases — work that requires precisely the evidentiary rigor and client-counseling judgment the new public charge regime now demands of every adjustment applicant.

• Professional Involvement

Before concentrating on employment- and family-based immigration, Ms. Colón-Dziegielewski gained substantial experience in asylum and humanitarian relief, representing applicants in the very categories — refugees, asylees, Special Immigrant Juveniles, and U visa holders — that remain statutorily exempt from the public charge ground of inadmissibility. That vantage point makes her an ideal guide to which clients and filings are protected under the new rule, and which now require a carefully constructed financial record.

• Experience

At Sumner Immigration Law, Ms. Colón-Dziegielewski handles the full range of employment-based and family-based cases, from nonimmigrant visas through green card petitions and adjustment of status. Her combined humanitarian and adjustment practice positions her to walk attendees through both halves of this program: defending filings protected by exemption or by the September 18 cutoff, and assembling the documentation that satisfies the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis for everyone else.

Martha L. Arias, Immigration Attorney | Arias Villa, PLLC

Martha L. Arias is a Miami-based immigration attorney and founder of Arias Villa, PLLC, where she has practiced U.S. immigration law exclusively for more than two decades. Her practice spans the full landscape the new public charge rule touches — adjustment of status and green card petitions, family-based immigration, waivers of inadmissibility, humanitarian relief, and removal defense — giving her a front-line view of both the filings protected by the September 18 cutoff and the enhanced adjustment record USCIS will demand afterward.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Arias earned her J.D. from St. Thomas University School of Law and a master’s degree in Comparative Law with an emphasis in International Law from the University of Miami School of Law, and also holds a civil-law degree from Colombia. She is admitted to the Florida Bar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Arias received recognition from the Congress of the United States in June 2023 for her service to the immigrant community, and her honors include the 10 Best Attorneys Client Satisfaction Award, AILA Top Ranking Attorney recognition, and multiple Lawyers of Distinction awards. A trusted public voice on immigration law, she hosts a weekly immigration radio program on America Radio Miami, has delivered immigration news on Actualidad Radio for six years, and appears regularly on Spanish-language television and radio outlets across the U.S. and Latin America.

• Professional Involvement

A member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since 2005, Ms. Arias has served in the leadership of AILA’s South Florida chapter, including as chapter President and First Vice-President. She is a Past President of the Colombian-American Bar Association (COLBAR), has served on — and chaired — ethics committee work for the Florida Bar, and has authored over 2,000 published articles on legal topics, in addition to serving as a senior editor on an Oxford University press publication.

• Experience

Over nearly twenty-five years, Ms. Arias has handled adjustment of status, consular processing, family- and employment-based petitions, business and investor visas, waivers, and deportation defense, litigating before the Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, the federal district courts of Florida, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Administrative Appeals Office. An immigrant herself, she combines technical command of the adjustment process with the practical judgment of defending applicants when the government pushes back — exactly the perspective needed to protect pre-September 18 filings and build a public-charge-proof record under the new regime.

SESSION 1 – The 2026 Public Charge Framework: Understanding the New Standard and Advising Clients During the Transition | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session examines the DHS final rule rescinding the 2022 public charge regulations, effective September 18, 2026, and the resulting framework under INA § 212(a)(4). Attorneys will review the statutory totality-of-the-circumstances analysis, the five statutory factors, changes affecting the consideration of public benefits and Form I-864, and important transition rules. The session will focus on what the rule and USCIS guidance establish, what remains uncertain, and practical steps attorneys can take now to identify potential public charge concerns, counsel clients, and prepare adjustment filings.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Public Charge 2026 in Practice: Exemptions, Benefits, the I-864, and the Consular Overlay | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session translates the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility final rule, 91 Fed. Reg. 45324 (July 20, 2026), into a working analysis for adjustment and consular caseloads on both sides of the September 18, 2026 effective date. Beginning with what the rule actually changes — the rescission of the 2022 regulation, the revised Form I-485, and the return of broad officer discretion under INA § 212(a)(4) — the session walks through the threshold question every practitioner must now answer first: whether the adjustment category is subject to public charge at all, now that DHS has removed the regulatory exemption list at 8 C.F.R. § 212.23 while the statutory exemptions survive. Attorneys will examine the trap of moving from an exempt to a non-exempt basis, the totality-of-the-circumstances factors USCIS will weigh, and the most consequential substantive shift: the far broader consideration of means-tested public benefits, including Medicaid and state health programs, subject to the critical transition rule that honors 2022-era limits for benefits received before September 18. The session then addresses benefits received by children and household members, why an adequate I-864 no longer resolves the inquiry on its own, and the revived public-charge bond process triggered by a Notice of Intent to Deny. It closes with the consular overlay — how the Department of State applies § 212(a)(4) to immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants under its own authority, including the select-case consular bond procedure. Attendees will leave with a date-driven client questionnaire, an exemption-screening framework, and an evidence checklist for building a record that withstands the new discretionary review.