The Trump administration’s “public charge” rule will take effect Monday following a Supreme Court ruling allowing the widely condemned policy change to come into full force across 50 states.

In the Supreme Court’s decision, justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration, lifting the last remaining injunction protecting Illinois residents from the rule, which critics have branded a “wealth test” for immigrants.

The policy, officially titled the Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds, seeks to make it more difficult for immigrants who are likely to “become a public charge” to obtain visas and green cards in the U.S.

Under the new rule, immigrants who rely on benefits or who are considered likely to rely on benefits, including Medicaid, food stamps, and housing vouchers, could see hampered efforts toward obtaining a visa or green card.

Beginning Monday, when an individual seeks admission into the U.S. or an adjustment of their status in the U.S. and for those already living in the country, immigration officials will use a set of factors to determine whether their application should be denied based on the possibility they might become a public charge.

For example, being younger than 18 or older than 61, could be seen as a negative factor, according to an August report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). Having an annual income below the federal poverty line would also be a negative factor. (An income 125 percent or higher than the federal poverty line, meanwhile, would be a positive factor.)

“Health, education, family size, income, resources, and public benefits use will all be considered,” the institute warns on its website. It also warns that “certain factors will be heavily weighted—for example, having income or resources of at least 250 percent of the poverty line will be weighted positively, while current or recent use of the specified public benefits will be heavily weighted negatively.”

While the institute notes that it is “impossible to know” exactly who will be denied admission into the U.S. or a status adjustment under the U.S. government’s criteria, an MPI analysis paints a picture of who might be at risk of denial.

“Using Census data to review the characteristics of recent green-card holders, MPI found 43 percent were not employed or enrolled in school; 39 percent did not speak English well or at all; 33 percent had incomes below 125 percent of the poverty line; 25 percent lacked a high school diploma; and 12 percent had incomes below 125 percent of poverty and were either under 18 or over 61,” MPI said.

“Among recent green-card holders, 69 percent had at least one of these negative factors; 43 percent had at least two; and 17 percent had at least three,” the institute asserted.

Therefore, it said, “Most applicants would fall into a gray area with some positive and some negative factors, underscoring how discretionary the process may be.”

Already, immigration advocacy groups have warned that months before the public charge rule was slated to come into effect it was already having an impact on immigrant communities.

An Urban Institute report released last year found that even in 2018 one-in-seven adults (13.7 percent) in immigrant households said they or at least one of their family members had chosen not to participate in a non-cash benefit program “out of fear of risking future green card status.”

Among adults in low-income families, the rate was found to be even higher, with one-in-five (20.7 percent) adults saying they were too afraid to seek benefits for fear of negatively affecting their green card or visa applications.

Even among non-U.S. citizens who were already permanent residents and who will not be affected by the rule, the Urban Institute found signs of a “chilling effect,” with researchers asserting that “while the proposed rule does not affect non-citizens who are already permanent residents, we still find that 14.7 percent of adults in families in which all non-citizens are also permanent residents reported not participating in a non-cash benefit program.”

Despite widespread backlash to the rule, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency appeared to celebrate the Trump administration’s “judicial victory” in getting approval from the Supreme Court to extend the policy to Illinois.

In a statement on Saturday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said the U.S. would be moving forward with rolling out the public charge rule “nationwide, including in Illinois, following another judicial victory lifting the injunction in that state.”

“In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Feb. 21, 2020 decision to stay the statewide injunction preventing implementation of the Final Rule issued by U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, USCIS will now apply the Final Rule to all applications and petitions postmarked (or submitted electronically) on or after Feb. 24, 2020,” the agency said.

Noting that the public charge rule, which was published on August 14, had originally been expected to begin on October 15, before hitting a number of roadblocks, USCIS said the policy would “prescribe” how the Department determines “whether an alien is inadmissible, and ineligible to adjust status to that of a lawful permanent resident in the United States because the alien is likely at any time in the future to become a public charge.”

Illinois, of course, was not the only state to try to prevent the public charge rule from taking effect. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the effects of the rule would be “devastating” for residents in his state after an attempt to sue the Trump administration over the policy failed in Supreme Court.

“Because of the ‘public charge’ rule, families are already going hungry and people are avoiding needed medical care,” Newsom said in a January statement. “California will continue to fight against these efforts to terrorize immigrant families,” he vowed.

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Daredevil “Mad” Mike Hughes was killed in a rocket crash while trying to prove his Flat Earth theory.

The 64-year-old died after his homemade steam-powered rocket crash landed moments after takeoff near Barstow, California, on Saturday, according to TMZ.

A video posted to Twitter by journalist Justin Chapman showed the rocket being launched. Seconds later, a parachute is seen deploying too early and the rocket plummets to the ground. “Mad Mike Hughes just launched himself in a self-made steam-powered rocket and crash landed. Very likely did not survive,” Chapman wrote alongside the clip.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said its officers were called to a rocket launch event at around 2 p.m. on Saturday. According to KTLA, the sheriff’s office said “a man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert.”

The sheriff’s department did not identify the victim, but Hughes’ partner Waldo Stakes, who was at the rocket launch, confirmed to the Associated Press that Hughes was killed. The sheriff’s department has been contacted for additional comment.

In a tweet, the Science Channel confirmed that Hughes had died chasing his dream. “Michael ‘Mad Mike’ Hughes tragically passed away today during an attempt to launch his homemade rocket,” the tweet said.

“Our thoughts & prayers go out to his family & friends during this difficult time. It was always his dream to do this launch & Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey.”

Hughes’ representative Darren Shuster described him as “one-of-a-kind.” He told TMZ, “When God made Mike, he broke the mold. The man was the real deal and lived to push the edge. He wouldn’t have gone out any other way!”

According to Space.com, the launch attempt was filmed as part of a new TV series for the Science Channel called Homemade Astronauts following “self-financed, self-made teams on their quest to reach the sky.”

Hughes was trying to reach an altitude of 5,000 feet in his steam-powered rocket. For the show, he and two other teams were working to get as close to the Karman line—the point 62 miles above the Earth’s surface that is considered the beginning of space—as possible.

Hughes had previously spoken of his desire to prove his theory that the Earth is “shaped like a Frisbee” by taking photographs of the planet from space. He reached an altitude of around 1,875 feet in March 2018 before deploying his parachute.

“The Flat Earth thing is like everything else to me,” he told CBS News months after that mission, saying he had built the rocket by “trial and error.”

“I just want people to question everything. Question what your congressman is doing, your city council. Question what really happened during the Civil War. What happened during 9/11.”

But he added, “You don’t get a lot of second chances, though, in the rocket business.”

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