The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow today to potential legal immigrants who may be candidates for food stamps or public housing.
The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes says:
The rules establish new criteria for who can be considered to be dependent on the U.S. government for benefits — “public charges,” in the words of the law — and thus ineligible for green cards and a path to U.S. citizenship. They were proposed in October but have never been implemented.
According to the new policy, immigrants who are in the United States legally and use public benefits — such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance — or have at one time used public benefits, or are deemed likely to someday rely on public benefits would be suspect. The new criteria provide “positive” and “negative” factors for immigration officials to weigh as they decide on green-card applications. Negative factors include whether a person is unemployed, dropped out of high school or is not fluent in English.
This has been dubbed a “wealth test” by some. CBS reporter immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez says:
The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to enforce its most ambitious effort to restrict legal immigration, green-lighting the public charge rule. Critics say it will shut America’s doors to low-income immigrants & people of color.
