The Trump administration has announced that the immigrants relying on public benefits, such as Medicaid and food stamps for more than 12 months, will not be able to apply for a green card.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has made it clear that starting from Oct 15, the individuals receiving “one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months in the aggregate within any 36 month period” will be considered disqualified to apply for a green card.
For the people availing two public benefits at a time, one month will be counted as two, said Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of the USCIS.
The new rule, which the White House says is a reinforcement of a ‘Clinton-era law,’ is meant to make the immigrants more self-reliant, especially those who are a burden on tax-payers and social safety nets.
“Our rule generally prevents aliens who are likely to become a public charge from coming to the United States or remaining here and getting a green card,” said Cuccinelli.
Public benefits include the cash and non-cash assistance provided by federal, state, and local laws to low-income people. Some notable examples include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid programs.
However, there will be certain exemptions, according to the acting USCIS director.
Assistance programs for children, infants, and pregnant women, as well as programs for disaster relief, Head Start, and homeless shelters will not be impacting the status of an individual to apply for a green card.
Cuccinelli also clarified that the applicant will be checked for their age, family status, resources, health, financial status, skills, and education.
“No one factor alone will decide an applicant’s case,” said Cuccinelli.
The immigrants who will not be found eligible for a green card will be offered to have a status of Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) after purchasing a public charge bond.
According to reports, the administration will be selling the public charge bonds for $8,100 per person. However, the charges can vary on the basis of a person’s specifications.
The rule which will be implemented after October 15 will also not impact the programs for asylum seekers and refugees. Also, exemptions will be made for trafficking victims and spouses of military personnel.
“Through the public charge rule, President Trump’s administration is reinforcing the ideals of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility. Ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and becoming successful in America,” stated Cuccinelli on Monday.
However, a White House briefing sheet has revealed that the government aims to keep those immigrants away who can be a burden or a risk for the country.
The sheet stated that legal rights and financial aid programs which are meant to help the poor Americans are abused by the immigrants due to the tolerant policies of the United States.
“Aliens will be barred from entering the United States if they are found likely to become public charges,” the fact sheet read. “Aliens in the United States who are found likely to become public charges will also be barred from adjusting their immigration status.”
President Trump has long wanted immigration to be merit-based instead of the current visa system in which the applications are picked up randomly. He wants to bar those people from entering the country who can’t contribute to America’s GDP and only take benefits from it.
According to the president, individuals who do not have the workplace skills required by the industrialized economy of the US have been settling in the country for years.
“The people that are sent to our country are not the people that we want,” Trump said a few months back. “They come in through the lottery, they come in through chain migration.”
The new green card policy for immigrants sparked outrage among the activists and the liberals who said it will only increase resentment in the public.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has vowed to fight against the new policy, which he says is an attack on the ‘lower income communities of color.’
Philip Wolgin, the managing director of Immigration Policy at the Washington DC, said: “In El Paso, we saw the painful consequences of this climate of hate.
“Today’s action illustrates that the Trump administration will stop at nothing to attack immigrants and people struggling to make ends meet.”
Wolgin added: “This rule prioritizes money over family and tells immigrants that if they want to achieve the American dream, they’d better do it before they get here.
“Just like the administration’s policy of separating families and putting children in cages at the border, the public charge proposal is unquestionably cruel and goes against our fundamental values as a nation.”
Congresswoman Rosa de Lauro said in a statement: “He [President Trump] continues to make immigrants the scapegoat for a lack of good-paying jobs, even though it is his own policies that have failed to jump start wage growth for working people.”