National groups and legislators are condemning the Stephen Miller-helmed move from the Trump administration that would stomp on permanent residency for tax-paying immigrant families who legally access nutrition programs and other kinds of assistance for their U.S. citizen children. “The move,” Politico reported, “will mainly affect legal immigrants and their families, since undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most federal benefits.”
Early rumors of the plan had already resulted in immigrant parents pulling their children from programs like WIC, local providers had said, with one Texas group seeing as many as 90 participants a month drop out. The announced rule change, Kica Matos of immigrant rights coalition FIRM Action said, “could force immigrant moms and dads to choose between meeting basic needs and keeping their families together in the country they call home.”
In Kansas, one family had called Jennifer Mejias-Martinez of the Shawnee County Health Department in a panic, asking to be dropped from WIC. “They were very, very scared,” she said. Mejias-Martinez tried, unsuccessfully, to get them to change their mind, but fear over their future status in America won out. “It made me very sad,” she continued, “and quite frankly upset.”
Aside from being on assault on lower income families by ripping nutrition from the mouths of children and babies, the administration’s move is a cruel and blatant election strategy. Unable to run on the tax scam benefitting the rich or dismantling health care for millions of Americans, the White House is yet again pointing fingers at these families, telling their base that hardworking immigrants and their kids, not the Trump administration’s corruption or bowing to the rich, are the cause of their problems.
“I see the Trump administration’s hostility towards immigrants as part of a strategy of mass distraction to keep the focus on fomenting outrage directed at Latinos while keeping the focus off of the corruption and graft that are gripping the White House and the GOP,” said Congress member Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. “Hey, if I were Donald Trump I would want to talk about anything other than the indictments and Russian collusion, the tax-cuts to billionaires, and his taking health care away from American families.”
Miller’s move could affect as many as 20 million children, the National Domestic Workers Alliance said, “and an even greater number of people who have been waiting for years to become residents and live without fear of deportation or finally reunite with their families.” By law, the administration must soon open the change to public comment for 60 days, and advocates are urging massive outcry against the plan.
“This recently announced proposed rule change will demonize and exempt immigrants from achieving permanent residency for participation in nutrition, health, housing and other assistance programs,” said Jonathan Jayes-Green of the UndocuBlack Network. “This administration is creating an invisible wall, using racist policy and bypassing Congress, to drastically reduce the number of immigrants in this country. However, the oversight will be the masses and we absolutely refuse to stay silent.”