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WASHINGTON – Trump administration officials announced Saturday that immigrants who legally use public benefits such as food aid and section 8 housing coupons could be denied green cards under the new rules aimed at prevent people from administering
This measure could force millions of poor immigrants who depend on public support for food and housing to make a difficult choice between accepting financial aid and looking for a green card to live and work legally in the United States.
Older immigrants, many of whom are receiving low-cost prescription drugs under the Medicare Part D program, may also be forced to stop participating in the popular benefits program or risk being considered Inadmissible "public costs".
The ruling is not intended to affect most immigrants who have already obtained green cards, but advocates have expressed concern that people with legal resident status will stop using public benefits to protect their status. The regulation, which the administration estimates would affect about 382,000 people a year, is the latest in a series of aggressive crackdowns by President Trump and his hard-nosed collaborators on legal and illegal immigration.
Federal law has always required that those looking for green cards prove that they will not be a burden and have taken into consideration the acceptance of cash benefits. But the government has never considered using other public benefits, such as food assistance.
Now, the new regulation – announced on the Department of Homeland Security website – will require immigration officials to consider public benefits as "strongly weighed down" for those who ask to stay legally in the country. permed. Those who are likely to become dependent on the help of the government will probably be refused.
The rule would affect people seeking to immigrate to the United States permanently and other people who are in the country with temporary visas – including students and workers – who seek to stay permanently.
Immigrants could, in limited cases, be asked to post deposits of at least $ 10,000 to avoid being denied green cards under the new regulations, which do not need to be issued. to be approved by Congress. The authorities have stated that they expect the regulation to become final after being published in the federal registry in the coming weeks and subject to a 60-day review period.
In a press release, the US Department of Homeland Security said the new rule "would ensure that those seeking to enter and stay in the United States either temporarily or permanently can support themselves and not do not depend on public benefits.
The 447-page rule, entitled "Ineligibility for public office", will not apply to families who represent less than 15% of the official poverty designation, officials said.
Pro-immigrant campaigners predict that poor immigrants will immediately begin withdrawing from public aid programs – even at the risk of losing the support they need to feed, shelter and heal – for fear of being denied their green card and to be expelled.
"President Trump has just announced a devastating new draft regulation that would hurt countless immigrant families and all communities in our country," said the National Immigration Law Center in a statement.
There are political implications to this decision, which comes less than two months before the mid-term elections, which will determine who controls the House and Senate for the next two years of Mr. Trump's term.
Focusing on the use of public benefits is often an effective way to galvanize conservative supporters. Drawing attention to the use of these benefits by immigrants could be particularly convincing in convincing Trump's supporters across the country.
Stephen Miller, the president's chief immigration advisor, has long believed that being tough on immigrants was a winning tactic for Republican candidates who, all too often, Miller said, had made compromises with Democrats. He has been pushing for the new rule in recent months.
But the magnitude of the effect on immigrants could also spur liberal voters to support Democratic candidates. In New York, for example, City officials estimated that under a previous draft regulation, which had been leaked to the media, nearly a million people could be injured.
They said that children of immigrants who are legally in the United States could be the most vulnerable. Immigrant parents who work in low-wage jobs and depend on help may have to take their children out of programs to keep their families in the United States. Unauthorized immigrants are ineligible for almost all public benefits.
Trump administration officials say the rule is aimed at promoting fiscal responsibility.
"Self-sufficiency has been a fundamental principle of US immigration law since the first immigration laws of this country," says the proposal. US policy remains that "the availability of public benefits does not constitute an incentive for immigration to the United States".
The government has traditionally regarded as a public office a person who depends on government financial assistance for more than half of his income. Now, however, officials will consider whether an individual or a family has received a series of non-commercial public benefits, such as assistance from the Additional Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as the good food; the program of Article 8, which provides housing assistance; or the Medicare prescription drug program for seniors.
"This is long overdue," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, whose research supports a decrease in immigration. "This country has fictitiously defined public office in order to facilitate a high level of low-skilled immigration. But it's just a 21st century definition of what the public office is. "
Officials said the new rule does not apply to refugees or asylum seekers entering the country, or to legal immigrants serving in the military. Money or other assistance provided to immigrants suffering from natural disasters would not be charged against them.
Critics of the new rule say that it departs from long-standing precedents and the original intention of the Congress with respect to the law on public office. They also say that it violates the right of states to provide benefits to children and immigrants who are experiencing short-term crises.
It is estimated that around 20 million children from immigrant families may be affected by the policy changes. a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation that examined a draft new rule even wider than the one announced Saturday. Nearly nine out of ten children are US citizens.
"The proposal is clearly aimed at denying basic supports such as food, health care and housing to legally-resident immigrants and their families – including millions of American children and citizens – who pay taxes, work, go to school and contribute to the economy of our country. Governor Jay Inslee from Washington written in April in a letter to Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the agency that reviews the proposed rules before they are published. The Mayor of Seattle wrote a similar letter expressing his concerns.
In addition to the use of public benefits, the proposed rule also considers that certain health problems, such as mental health disorders, heart disease and cancer, are among the most important factors. The proposal states that "a foreigner is highly likely to become a public indictment if he suffers from a health problem and that he is unable to prove that he is not benefiting. of an unsubsidised health insurance ".
This is a Catch-22, said Shawn Fremstad, a member of the Center for American Progress. Poor immigrants with health problems must prove that they are insured, but they can not use the benefits available to enroll.
"It's a bit like creating a castel system," Fremstad said. "Unless you have an American dream for you in your country, you're going to have a hard time winning it here. It's really filtering these people.
Mr Krikorian does not dispute this opinion.
"It's not a moral problem," he said. "A Honduran with a grade six education is not morally deficient, but he works three times and still can not feed his family. Low-skilled immigrants are an inadequacy for a modern society like ours.
The complex network of technicalities surrounding the new rule is difficult to understand, said Charles Wheeler, legal expert of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, so the number of immigrants who withdraw from programs may even exceed the number of those who are subject to the rule.
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