As soon as it was announced that the Trump administration was proposing a sweeping change to limit the number of immigrants who can receive green cards based on their use of government benefits, the phone started ringing nonstop in Liza Galindo's office.

The immigration attorney in Miami Springs, Fla., said it’s been difficult to advise her clients about what they should do because the proposed rules — published Wednesday in the Federal Register — won’t go into effect for months and could change significantly before then.

"Unfortunately, we have to wait and see until it passes," she said. "What I advise them is, 'We don't know yet.'"

That combination of fear and confusion created by the new 183 pages of rules is partly by design, according to the Trump administration’s proposal.

At its core, the new rules would vastly expand the kinds of government benefits that, if used by immigrants, would disqualify them from becoming legal permanent residents. The Department of Homeland Security says the use of benefits is an indication that the immigrant is likely to become a “public charge” dependent on government services at some point in the future.

But the proposal goes even farther, explicitly stating that "concern about the consequences" of using any public benefit is likely to drive immigrants out of programs "even if such individuals are otherwise eligible to receive benefits."

David Super, a professor of law at Georgetown University who studies poverty and inequality, said the government's efforts to promote uncertainty has created a "chilling effect" among immigrants who are now paranoid of government services they are legally entitled to.

For example, while most immigrants cannot get food stamps or federal housing assistance, they can use the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. That federal program provides help to pregnant women, those who are breastfeeding, and children up to age 5 who are determined to be at nutritional risk.

Super said he's heard from clinics that immigrants are now abandoning that assistance, putting the health of those families at risk. But their decision to drop out of the program raises yet another quandary.

Agents to look at 'totality of circumstances'

WIC is not expressly forbidden in the proposed regulations, meaning immigrants should be able to continue receiving them. But Super said the regulations were written in a way that grants broad flexibility to immigration agents to turn down green card applications based on the "totality of circumstances" of each applicant, including their use of government services, health, age, family status, education, and other factors.

"(Using WIC) shouldn't affect you, but with the totality of the circumstances test so open-ended, an awful lot of people don't want to take the chance," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledges that the new regulations will limit the number of people who can receive green cards. It estimated that more than 380,000 green card applications a year will fall under tighter scrutiny. But the department says that’s necessary to deny people who will become public charges and save U.S. taxpayers $2.27 billion a year.

More:How Trump administration plans to screen green card applicants’ use of government welfare benefits

The rules will now go through a 60-day period of public comment, and the administration will be able to tweak them in response to comments from people opposed to, or in support of, the new rules.

Democrats in Congress have denounced the proposed rules.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., whose mother is an immigrant from Thailand, called the proposal "as heartless as it is dangerous."

"My family teetered on the brink of homelessness when I was in high school and relied on food stamps to survive," she said in a recent statement. "My own mother is an immigrant – and if this proposal had been in place during those years, my family could’ve been forced to choose between her citizenship and going hungry.

“No family should have to face that choice. No one should have to decide between seeking urgently needed health care – or shelter, or food – and getting ripped away from their loved ones. This proposal isn’t just unfair. It’s cruel, unacceptable and un-American.”

'Everything is to discourage immigration'

Whatever the administration decides, its new rules are almost certain to prompt most immigration attorneys across the country to warn their clients to be cautious about what government benefits they sign up to receive or risk not gaining permanent legal residency.

Gerald Burns, an immigration attorney from Chandler, Ariz, said he has spoken to some immigrant parents who are considering taking their children off public assistance so as not to jeopardize their green card applications. “That is a tough call for a parent,” he said.

Burns said he believes the administration’s proposed changes are intended to discourage immigrants from applying for green cards and other immigration benefits.

“It’s consistent with everything that Trump and his administration has done,” he said. “Everything is to discourage immigration. Period.”

Caution advised when seeking help, benefits

Galindo said immigrants must be careful in the coming months when preparing their taxes, for example. She said tax preparers are doing their job by identifying all the tax benefits available to their client, but immigrants have to carefully review their tax returns to ensure they're not receiving tax credits that could jeopardize their green card applications under the proposed rules.

Mary Carmen Madrid Crost, an immigration attorney in Chicago, said immigrants must also be careful when dealing with notarios, a common title for an attorney in Latin America, but usually referring to a less-qualified notary public in the U.S.

She said such notarios can give immigrants terrible advice on the changes to public charge regulations that could jeopardize their green card applications.

Madrid Crost said immigrants who seek help from social workers must also be on alert. Those workers, in an effort to help the immigrants, often sign them up for whatever government services are available, including federal, state, and local program. Any of those could be counted against immigrants if the proposed rules go into effect.

It’s the new reality facing immigrants, Madrid Crost said, as the Trump administration continues rewriting rules and regulations to limit limiting the ability of legal and illegal immigrants to enter, or stay in, the U.S.

"We call it the invisible wall," she said. "I'm not trying to announce doom and gloom, but we have to be vigilant about things that are happening."

Arizona Republic reporter Daniel González contributed.