The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with their implementation of a “wealth test” that denies green cards to legal immigrants predicted to be a “public charge” (in other words, immigrants who are likely to take advantage of public aid like Medicaid, food stamps, and housing vouchers, even if used only occasionally).
This new policy will hit many immigrants hard, with an estimated 42% of legal immigrants having their green card applications “weighed negatively” and 94% facing increased scrutiny after using at least one of the identified public benefits programs (Kaiser Family Foundation).
Personally, this policy seems misguided and inherently discriminatory. In the vein of civil rights, this violates many of the values that Americans hold close. Equality of opportunity, equality in treatment, and the right to government services are being withheld from low-income immigrants; many are now stuck between a rock and a hard place, forced to choose between health-care and food despite there being government services that legal immigrants should have access to. Before the Trump administration, an immigrant was considered a public charge only if most of their income came from state assistance or was a long term resident in a government-funded institution. This new definition of a public charge is over-inflated and would disproportionately target minority immigrants. Especially because many immigrants come to the US without many resources in pursuit of the romantic “American dream” or are seeking refuge from conflict in their home country, the “wealth test” would hold so many to an unreasonable standard.
Politically, this also seems unwise; the Trump administration is focused on enforcing legal immigration, however this policy does nothing to encourage it. In raising additional roadblocks for legal immigrants, they are making the process more daunting for those attempting to immigrate under the law.
What’s your take on this policy? Do you think it should be implemented and how do you think it will affect the nature of US immigration as a whole?
2 comments:
I definitely think this is an interesting approach to the whole immigration problem. In my opinion, while I can see where Trump is coming from (these immigrants are taking money taxpayers contribute to be used for social services and aid), I think that this is a very rudimentary proposition that forgets what makes America (an immigrant society) so successful. By predicting who is going to be a “public charge”, the US will inherently have to input some subjectivity on the matter of who enters. This means there will always be a possibility of segregation or misguided discrimination as you say in your post. Moreover, a majority of people coming into this country as immigrants are looking for financial freedom and success (meaning they are likely to not have enough wealth to meet this test’s standards). The US should instead be looking at the potential of each immigrant as it pertains to their aspirations (we should be thinking about these immigrants as an investment that will further help society when they are more financially stable). I don’t think most immigrants coming in are here to simply leech off of the social benefits. Why would anyone want to live on bare minimum? Immigrants come to forge a better life or escape prosecution. I think regardless of whether the US provided public aid to immigrants, we would still see an influx of them anyway.
I think this policy is stupid. Olivia is absolutely right in stating how this discourages legal immigration, because why would you go through all that trouble of applying and doing everything you can to start a better life and being denied because you can't provide for yourself?? That seems cruel to me. I really don't think this should be implemented because it is 100% discrimination against poorer people, which can actually be argued to be a racist thing as well: people coming from different countries tend to hold different wealth, because a country's economy will affect how much they are able to provide for themselves. If we enforce this discrimination, we will be turning a blind eye to the people in need and looking for a fresh start. I think Trump's ultimate goal is to create a nation that focuses solely on wealth; he wants the US to be an even richer country than it is, and to be exclusive to those who can pay enough to get in.
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