WASHINGTON: The administration of President Trump is seeking to make it difficult for immigrants to get Green Card if considered a burden on public exchequer, a news report said on Sunday, the latest in a series of measures to tighten rules for not just illegal but legal aliens.
The proposed rule called “Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds” will now be open for comment for 60 days. In the meantime, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services would continue to apply the current public charge policy.
Since becoming president in January last year, President Trump has sought to put a plug on the flow of people seeking legal as well as illegal means to stay in the country. The legal and administrative measures have accounted for a drastic fall in number of intending immigrants and visitors travelling to the United States.
The latest measure would affect about 382,000 people per year who legally use food stamps or housing vouchers and could result in denial of the green cards, according to an announcement by the Trump administration. The officials could even deny extensions to those who might become “public charges”.
It may be mentioned here that the rule is not new and introduced in 1999 under which people who apply for green cards have always had to prove they wound not be a burden. This is aimed at preventing people from getting green cards if they were considered likely to need financial assistance from the government.
But, this would be the first time that the use of food stamps and Section 8 housing assistance would be considered negative factors in deciding whether someone should be given a green card, a news report said.
The latest move drew a quick reaction from immigrant activists and Democrats who termed it as a baseless attack on immigrants.
“From the first day of the Trump campaign, the message has been that immigrants are a danger and a drain. Trump wants you to think Latinos and immigrants are rapists and murderers, they vote illegally against him, they are lazy and at the same time are stealing American jobs,” Democrat lawmaker Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said in a statement.
According to The New York Times, among those most affected will be elderly immigrants who depend on Medicare Part D for low-cost prescription drugs. The move will not affect those who have already received green cards.
