On Monday, 45’s administration released a mandate that could make it easier to reject green card and visa applications. Coupled with the ICE raids that happened last week on food processing plants in Mississippi, this report demonstrates calculated attempts by the administration to limit legal immigration and crack down on illegal immigration.
The 837-page document directly affects those seeking to come to or continue living in the United States per the current legal process. This “public charge” rule was created to certify that immigrants can gain and maintain financial stability once they get here, thereby, likely making it tougher for low-income immigrants to come to the United States.
According to the current legislation created in 1996, the phrase is specified as someone who is “primarily dependent” on government assistance, meaning it is the source of more than half their income. But the document only accounts for cash benefits, such as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or SSI (Supplemental Security Income).
Officials can consider an applicant’s age, health, family status, education, financial resources, and skills. But experts say few people are rejected on these relatively narrow grounds.
More than one-in-five immigrant families is considered low-income, according to a study based on a December 2018 survey of around 2,000 adults, under the age of 65, who were born outside of the US or live with at least one relative who was born outside of the US. This ruling means that many green card and visa applicants could be rejected if they have low incomes or little education because they’d be considered to have a higher likelihood of needing government assistance in the future. It would take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
