The Department of Veterans Affairs told the Trump administration "no comment" when it was asked to respond to the proposed rule that makes it easier to deny green cards to low-income immigrants who use public benefits. The Department of Defense, by contrast, made sure that active duty military were mostly exempted from the new rule. The VA, when it got around to responding, had no position.
The new regulation will apply to the men and women who have served this country—even though it wasn't their country of birth—and their families. Non-citizen or resident veterans will not be able to accept public assistance for themselves or their families without jeopardizing their future immigration status, should the new regulation withstand the legal challenges filed against it. ProPublica, through a Freedom of Information Act request, found that while the DoD was working with the Department of Homeland Security throughout the rule-making process to minimize harm to active duty personnel, the VA simply didn't.
Part of the problem could be the lack of permanent leadership at the VA during the six-month period in which administration officials could have input on the regulation. The first communication to agencies from the White House seeking comment was on March 29, 2018. That email was sent the day after then-VA Secretary David Shulkin had been fired by Trump via tweet. Or they didn't care enough. One week after that initial email, "a VA official in the secretary's office responded: "VA submits a 'No Comment' response." Asked again by the White House in July and in September 2018 for comment, the same response was sent back by a VA official.
"They should be the foremost government agency that's fighting for protections for veterans," Jeremy Butler, chief executive officer of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told ProPublica. "If they have a 'No Comment,' that says to me that it wasn't given the time and attention and research necessary to understand how it would affect the veteran community."
Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, echoed that. "It's despicable that the Trump Administration is punishing veterans who sacrificed for our country simply for using the support services they've earned. […] Instead of tearing down military families, the President should be working to support those who've done so much for our country."
According to Census data, there are around 100,000 non-citizen veterans in the U.S. But the new regulations don't apply just to them, they apply to their spouses as well. "A lot of veterans end up marrying women or men that don't have green cards; that happens very often," Hector Barajas, who leads an advocacy group called Deported Veterans Support House, told ProPublica. "There is a population of people that will be affected."