Bummer: Green Card Applicants Can Be Denied For Using Government Benefits

Well, yeah. Anyone wanting to live in America from a foreign nation should be able to be self sufficient (also, why in the ever lovin’ f*ck to we have people living here as “permanent residents”? Very silly)

Immigrants using food stamps or Medicaid can now be denied green cards

Immigrants applying to live permanently in the United States can be rejected if they receive public benefits, beginning this week.

Use of Medicaid, food stamps, tuition assistance and free school lunch programs, among other government assistance, could all be grounds for denying a green-card application.

The policy from President Donald Trump’s administration, which took effect Friday, marks a dramatic change to a long-standing federal policy consistent with the president’s efforts to restrict legal immigration pathways.

The rule could reduce federal and state payments by $13 billion a year, by persuading some 950,000 people to disenroll from or avoid federal safety net programs, according to estimates from the Department of Homeland Security. The agency said that the rule aligns with Congress’s intent that noncitizens “in the United States be self-sufficient and not dependent on taxpayer-funded government benefits.”

That makes sense, right? Beyond the whole “why in the f*ck are there permanent residents?” People should be coming to apply for citizenship or be on temporary visas. People on visas or applying for citizenship have to show they can take care of themselves, that they will not be on government benefits.

“Aliens in the United States should be self-reliant,” a DHS policy document for the rule states, “and government benefits should not incentivize immigration.”

Applying for a green card, or legal permanent residency, is a necessary step for those seeking U.S. citizenship.

Yes, well, a goodly chunk apply and never go through with the whole process to be citizens. They just….reside. And use government programs.

This week, New York led 21 other states, the District of Columbia and several cities in suing the Trump administration over the new rule. The lawsuit argued that the rule fails “to consider many important aspects” of the problems it creates and warned that the harms will extend to mixed-status families and U.S. citizen children.

“Cruelty is the point,” New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit this week. “Having a chilling effect on immigrants is the point. Letting individuals know that they are not welcome here is the point.”

Well, then those states can pay for the lives of these people. Most nations around the world require that people moving to those countries be self sufficient. That they bring value. It is not uncommon for a person to have to meet a financial burden test when they want to move to a new country. Why does the US have to let every poor person in who brings nothing? This is the way it used to be a long time ago.