Among the most deplorable features of the Trump administration is the number of ways it finds to criminalize, punish, and just plain fuck over immigrants. A draft proposal obtained by the Washington Post reveals the administration could be close to targeting “immigrants who accept almost any form of welfare or public benefit, even popular tax deductions” for their U.S. citizen kids, in a quest to deny them permanent legal status:
Current rules penalize immigrants who receive cash welfare payments, considering them a “public charge.” But the proposed changes from the Department of Homeland Security would widen the government’s definition of benefits to include the widely used Earned Income Tax Credit as well as health insurance subsidies and other “non-cash public benefits.”
The changes would apply to those seeking immigration visas, or legal permanent residency, such as a foreigner with an expiring work visa. While it would make little difference to those living illegally in the shadows, it could affect immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — whose termination has been blocked by federal courts — if they attempt to file for full legal residency.
“This proposal somehow brings together the two of the most striking features of the Trump Admin: criminalization of poverty and white supremacy,” tweeted Jeremy Slevin of the Center for American Progress. “They’re actively considering whether to use this rule to create new grounds for deporting legal immigrants,” said Mark Greenberg of the Migration Policy Institute, adding it “goes even further” than a version of the draft leaked last month. “One of the most radical changes outlined in the proposal would consider refundable tax income credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit created to help working families with low and moderate incomes”:
According to recent estimates, it is used by nearly one-fifth of American taxpayers, particularly those who work in relatively low-paid service industries.
Under the proposed changes, immigration caseworkers would not consider benefits derived from service in the armed forces or some other government job, as well as disability, workers’ compensation and Medicare, unless the premiums are fully paid by the public. It would also exclude elementary and secondary public education and early childhood development programs offered under the Head Start Act.
But children would be considered a negative factor for caseworkers evaluating whether an immigrant is likely to use some form of public assistance or benefit.
Children as a “negative factor”? Party of family values, indeed. Reportedly, “the proposed rule appears to have generated consternation among some USCIS employees. At a recent town-hall-style staff meeting, USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna was challenged by one employee,” who said that “on a personal level, I think I can say with confidence that my destitute and illiterate great-grandparents would not have been welcomed in this country under something like the very ill-conceived public charge rule that is currently in the process of development.”