Immigrants Receiving Public Benefits Will Be Restricted From Attaining Green Cards

   

On Saturday, Trump’s administration announced its proposal that immigrants in the U.S. or are looking to enter, may be ineligible for green cards if they receive any public benefits or seem likely to. These benefits include food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers, etc.. If this new rule comes into effect, about 382,000 people will be affected annually. Under the new rule, immigrants could be asked to pay cash bonds of at least $10,000 to avoid being rejected or will have to choose between becoming a permanent resident or sacrifice public benefits.

Percentages of native-born Americans that receive the same assistance as immigrants, however, are almost identical. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, of all 41.5 million immigrants living in the U.S., only 3.7% received cash benefits in 2013, and only 22.7% accepted non-cash benefits which include Medicaid, housing subsidies or home heating assistance. And in 2015, USCIS research found that of 270 million non-immigrant Americans, 3.4% received cash welfare payments and 22.1% received non-cash subsidies.

The Department of Homeland Security defends their position by stating that this new proposal is aimed to protect limited resources and promote immigrant self-sufficiency, to ensure that they are non-reliant on public assistance and unlikely to burden taxpayers. Additionally, since drawing attention to immigrants use of public benefits often galvanize conservative supporters, there are implications that this rule will benefit Trump during the midterm elections.

    

Pro-immigration activists, however, claims that this new regulation would actually hurt the country in the long run. It is predicted that poor immigrants will start to withdraw from public assistance programs in fear of being denied green cards and deported, which poses a risk of them losing needed assistance for food, shelter, and medicine, making the U.S. a more difficult country to live in.

Jackie Vimo from the National Immigration Law Center, a group defending low-income immigrants, says that this rule attacks immigrant families and attempts to make the immigration system only applicable for the wealthy.  Furthermore, critics argue that it violates states’ rights to provide children and immigrants experiencing short-term crises benefits.

With Trump's additional attempt to control immigration, do you think immigrants should give up the benefits they should have in order to become a permanent U.S. resident? How can this issue be approached in a way that immigrants receiving public benefits will not put a strain on the U.s.'s limited resources?