October 15: On This Day In 2019
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” says the Statue of Liberty. “Never mind,” corrects President Trump…especially if they’re poor.
Trump has made it clear how he personally feels about immigrants and about the poor. Of course he particularly hates people who are both immigrants and poor. So OTDI 2019 he unveiled one of his new laws designed to punish those people.
For 140+ years in this country, versions of the “public charge” rule have given guidelines about who should be denied immigration to the United States. Originally, it was primarily insane people or criminals who were denied, although gradually the rule came to encompass those who were likely to become “dependent” on the United States for subsistence.
Generally, the law was used to exclude applicants and was rarely used to deport people once they were already here.
What the Trump Administration did, once they got their chance, was to greatly broaden the interpretation and definition of “pubic charge.”
According to Trump’s new scheme, immigrants already in this country could be denied permanent status if they had “receive public assistance such as welfare, food stamps, public housing or Medicaid” for certain lengths of time. Previously, those specifically were not grounds to evaluate immigrants.
So what’s the problem? Opponents of Trump’s policy claimed it would likely cut legal immigration in half. And it was feared the rule would scare migrants from accessing health services. Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, predicted Trump's change "will have a dire humanitarian impact, forcing some families to forgo critical lifesaving health care and nutrition. The damage will be felt for decades to come."
So what’s the impact? The fearmongers were correct. And the impacts were evident right away. According to the National Housing Law Project, “The Trump administration’s 2019 public charge rule effectively denied millions of immigrant families health care, housing and economic support. (For example), an estimated 2.1 million essential workers and household members went without Medicaid and 1.3 million did not receive help through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the 2019 rule."
Biden/Harris restore America: The legality of Trump’s move was quickly challenged in court, although the rule continued to impact immigration while it was being litigated. However, the Biden Administration rolled back Trump’s changes, thereby preserving our nation’s status as a welcoming beacon for the world.
Dive Deeper
Reuters coves the original public charge rule
The National Immigration Law Center has a full history of the “public charge” rule
NYT’s evaluation of Trump’s move
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump's public charge rule attacks poor immigrants